A large ceiling panel in Room 101, Clark Thomson’s classroom, collapsed the morning of Wednesday, January 10, after an intense storm the night before. When the panel fell, it hit a glass picture frame, knocking it from the wall onto the floor. The glass shattered and water poured from the ceiling. 

The panel looked discolored and droopy moments before it fell. Ethan Cohen ’26 noticed this and suggested that it wasn’t going to hold. Moments later, while US History teacher Clark Thomson was walking around the room, the class was startled by a loud bang from the fallen panel. Thomson commented, “the ceiling had fallen in and landed right where I had been seated before … I’m lucky to be alive.” His computer that had been sitting on the desk was drenched in water and irreparable. The surrounding desk area had been cleared out.

Students experienced headaches due to the “rancid smell” coming from the “brown-yellow water all over the floor,” according to Grace Graefen ’26, who had class with Thomson after the incident. Her class was promptly relocated to the library. 

As of Friday, January 12, Thomson’s classes are back in Room 101 and a replacement panel has been added. Thomson suggested, “It would be useful for [maintenance] to look at some of the [other] panels because the panel that fell in was already stained,” According to Thomson, a new stain has appeared on the ceiling in the corner of his room that wasn’t there yesterday. Director of Physical Plant Julius Trimbach has suggested that Thomson keep his belongings away from any newly stained panels for the time being.

Trimbach has been working with his team to find the source of the problem. According to Trimbach, the attic and classroom above Room 101 are unaffected; however, he said that the walls may be leaking, requiring further investigation. Trimbach is also watching the wind patterns to see if wind direction affects where water may be coming in from. Additionally, Room 201 was repaired last year, so part of the wall on that side of the building is brand new. If the problem is revealed to be much larger or involves repairs around the third story of the building, maintenance will have to hire an outside professional to fix it. 

As for the flooding in the basement, Trimbach confirmed that a sump pump broke, which was promptly repaired that same morning. All of the equipment is frequently tested, but Trimbach jokingly remarked that “the only time you find out a pump doesn’t work is when it’s supposed to.”