2008 Woodie Awards
VSCC is still recovering, two years later
Lauren Day
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News
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Over the last two years, Vol State has undergone transformations of colossal magnitude, from storm-ravaged to nearly recovered, and it all started in the early afternoon on Friday, April 7, 2006.
"We were preparing way before the warning ever hit," said Lisa Lynch, public safety office supervisor. "I was aware of the tornadoes in Ashland City and I had notified my vice president and we were watching the weather…there was a big concern about exactly when to take cover. We didn't want everyone to have to be in tornado position for an hour and not take it seriously."
Lynch said that she makes the campus aware when the area is under a tornado watch through e-mails and the speaker system.
When the area is under a warning, the president is informed, and the decision is then made to get into "tornado position." The building coordinators are then alerted and everyone is evacuated to safe areas.
"When [our area] went under warning, that's when it was initiated for everyone to take cover," she continued. "The president and vice presidents were coordinating the plan and the building coordinators had already been notified. Some people were scared…I think it was 2:04 p.m., we initiated the evacuation to safer areas. 2:13 p.m., I believe, is when the tornado hit."
Lynch, who received an Outstanding Service Award for her work on the day of the tornado, said that she continued to coordinate everyone's positions after the tornado had passed.
"Caudill Hall was evacuated to [Wood], the library was evacuated to the Wood Campus Center, portions of the Ramer Building were evacuated to the Wood Campus Center," she said. "We were still under tornado warnings, they were expecting more weather, so we stayed in tornado position in the tornado safe areas for probably another hour. The president and myself coordinated and moved everybody to the gymnasium after those warnings had been lifted just so we had a more open space, but yet be able to keep everyone together."
"Disbelief" is the word Beth Cooksey, vice president of business and finance, used to describe her initial reaction to the damage.
"We had practiced our tornado drills, but in reality, you never think you're going to use it," said Cooksey. "My [office's windows] had been blown out, the door had been knocked down, the wall had fallen forward, and the roof had blown up into the ceiling."
"It was just amazing how much destruction could happen in such a short amount of time. I mean, you'rejust talking minutes," she continued. "I walked out [by Caudill] and I saw bricks, and I remember saying 'Bricks? Bricks are down?'"
With graduation just a few weeks away, Cooksey said that the first priority was getting classes "operational."
"It was a huge undertaking, because we lost 72 offices and 11 classrooms, so we had to find places for people to work," she said.
"72 employees had to be relocated to other places on campus and then we had to find places for those 11 classes to meet day in and day out," Cooksey continued. "We were here for the next 10 days consecutively, the Saturdays, the Sundays, everything else, in order to just miss four days of school."
Graduation did not have to be set back, she added.
"We really had some damage to every building on campus," said Cooksey. "The primary damage areas were the Ramer Administration Building and Caudill."
The skylights in the Randy and Lois Wood Campus Center, the landscaping in front of the Ramer Building, some exterior lighting, the softball field, the brick fence by the Wood Campus Center, the roof of Thigpen Library, the Fox Maintenance Building, 70 trees, and 80 vehicles were destroyed or damaged by the tornado, said Cooksey.
"Every part has been more challenging than we would have ever dreamt," she said. "Yet, we've had great success in the long run. One of the biggest challenges up front was figuring out the status of Caudill."
"Many people on campus, from looking at it, thought it needed to be torn down and demolished. I was among those who thought that may be where we needed to go," Cooksey added.
"So, just to figure out what to do with Caudill, you had to have engineers and architects come out and inspect to find out how much structural damage there was, and to weigh the difference between what would it cost to tear it down and what it would cost just to repair it," she continued. "So that was one of the challenges that took a long time."
Modular buildings were put in place to provide classrooms while the Caudill Hall classrooms were unavailable, said Cooksey. Classes resumed in Caudill Hall in January 2008.
The college began working in May 2006 with architects to determine the best way to proceed with repairing Noble C. Caudill Hall. Construction began in March 2007.
Cooksey explained that the Tennessee Board of Regents wanted to complete the repairs of the Ramer Building before starting on Caudill Hall.
The college began working in April 2006 with architects to develop a plan for repairing the Ramer Building and construction began in August 2006.
Cooksey said that repairs made to the Ramer Building included new ceilings, carpet, tile, paint, furniture, roof and windows. Also repaired were the skylights in the Great Hall and bricks along the front of the building.
She also said that there are three projects left and they are the landscaping, the Wemyss Auditorium in Caudill Hall, and the fence by the Wood Campus Center.
Cooksey said that the wooden fence by the Wood Campus Center is a temporary fence that replaced a brick fence which was destroyed by the tornado.
"The fence by Wood, if you're a new student, you've never seen what was there, there was a brick fence and that is what will be going back," said Cooksey.
"The wooden fence was put up because behind there are dumpsters and things that are not attractive. Within a couple of months, we will see that new brick fence. It's going to have the Vol State logo in the bricks," Cooksey added.
She also said that the landscaping should be finished within a month or two, and that the theater should be complete by July.
"We've had some delays and we want to make it exactly right, not just close to right," said Cooksey. "Our hold up right now is the rigging for the curtains and back drops. We've determined that to put the curtains and backdrops that we want, we probably want a stronger structural load, so we're probably going to have to make some renovations."
"But otherwise, they're ready to put the auditorium seating back in, probably within the week," she continued. "The flooring is almost done, the walls have been painted, so most of the work is complete in there."
James Story, associate professor of music, said that not having a theater for the music department to perform in has been an inconvenience.
"We've had to find alternative locations for performances," he said.
The music department has had to perform at several local churches, at the Amber Leaf Restaurant in Gallatin, and in the Richard Moore Gymnasium, said Story.
He also said that he's excited about the theater nearing completion, but he "can't get too excited because of all the delays."
"I will be excited when I know for sure that it's complete," said Story.
Story said that he's been in on planning and organizing the design of the theater and is happy about the improvements.
Among improvements are showers in the dressing rooms, more costume storage, a handicap accessible stage, new seats, lighting and sound, he said.
Phyllis Foley, dean of social science and education and associate professor of psychology, said that prior to the tornado, her office and many of her division's offices were in Caudill Hall.
"We were kind of dispersed to any available office that could be found," said Foley of where her division's offices were relocated. "The division offices were in Pickel, our secretaries were in Pickel, two of our faculty members were in Pickel, the remaining faculty members were kind of scattered in the annex, in various offices that were empty at the time."
"Our faculty has adjusted so remarkably to all of the displacement," she continued. "To making the trek from their office over in the annex to the modulars, without a single complaint."
"It's just been a phenomenal eye-opening experience for all of us to know that we can endure some pretty difficult hardships and do so without a lot of complaining or wishing things were different. It's truly been a heart warming experience to see how our folks have endured all of that," she added.
Foley also said that her division began moving back into their offices in Caudill Hall in January, but they haven't all moved back in yet.
"I think as soon as all of our faculty are back in their offices here in Caudill, we'll be close to normal," she said.
Foley also said that teaching in the modular classrooms wasn't that bad.
She said that the IT and maintenance staff was very helpful in making sure that her faculty had everything they needed in their relocated classrooms.
"From the time that we had to begin teaching in the modular classrooms, the IT folks and the video folks, and maintenance folks were all so magnificent in getting everything that we needed so rapidly, I mean, it was truly amazing," said Foley.
"Then they've done the same thing as we moved back into this building. They were right on task, right on time, and met all of our needs," she added. "So when you talk about the hardships, I'm sure there were many, of course relocation is always work, but I don't know if I'd consider it a hardship, other than just dealing with life."
"I don't think our students were affected in an adverse way," Foley continued. "I was teaching a class at the time and I taught a class in the modular classroom and my students were phenomenal, so I think we've just were able to get through it remarkably well."
"I kind of got to the point where I really liked teaching [in the modulars]," said Carole Bucy, professor of history. "You know, at first, I thought that this was the end of the world, but it was not a problem from the point of view of the facility, or even going over there. The only problem was the impermanence of it, that everybody knew it was temporary."
"I hated [the modulars] because of the parking lot," said student Keyna Elder. "But it was just something we knew we had to do."
She said that the modular classrooms weren't that bad at first, but having classes there for so long was hard.
Elder said she wasn't here when the tornado hit, she had left about an hour before
"When I first came back to school, there were still trees down, and a few damaged cars in the parking lot that hadn't been picked up yet," she said.
Elder also said that she likes all the new equipment in the Caudill Hall classrooms, but dislikes the fact that construction is still going on in the building.
"This morning, there was a lot of banging and a loud saw right outside my classroom," said Elder on Friday.
Cooksey said that Caudill Hall has received some improvements.
"Well, the Caudill building, was not a new building, so in a way, it has a fresh new look," said Cooksey. "We got brand new carpet, paint, and in the theater we are modernizing the lighting schemes, the curtains, the back drops, all of those will be new."
Foley said that she thinks the improvements made to Caudill have been good.
"Of course there are always some things that in hind sight you would have always liked to have seen done different," said Foley. "But overall I think it's much safer, and much improved."
Bucy said that she has only one complaint about the repaired Caudill Hall: the office and classroom numbers are not in order. There are even and odd numbers on the same side of the hallway and the numbers don't progress in sequential order.
"On one level, I don't care where the numbers are," said Bucy. "But it makes us look like we don't know what we're doing. I don't want people making fun of Vol State, because they think we don't know what we're doing."
"Our faculty here at Vol State is second to none academically," Bucy continued. "The fact that we offer an academically rigorous curriculum is one of the things that very few people in middle Tennessee know about, and that is why it is so important that everything we do on this campus look like we are serious about our work, rather than just grades 13 and 14."
Dean of Humanities and Associate Professor Dr. Bonny Copenhaver said that her office, originally in the Ramer Building, was relocated twice after the tornado.
"[Our offices] were extremely damaged," said Copenhaver. "My window was blown in, you couldn't even get into the front door of this office where the front of the building had collapsed in, and filled it full of rubble. The front wall was separated from the building."
She said that they were in Media Services for a while and then were moved to the carpeted dining hall in the Wood Campus Center.
"Being able to find our stuff, just to find files and forms that you need for everyday was challenging because we didn't pack it, it was packed for us," Copenhaver continued.
"We were in one office, then we had to pack up and move again…you went through that whole big thing of finding your stuff," she added.
Copenhaver said that the faculty in her division handled the challenges well.
"I think they did an amazing job of handling it," she said. "I was very proud…there are 45 full-time faculty in this division, and it impacted all of them in one way or another."
"We had faculty members who sacrificed storage spaces so that other people could have offices,"she continued. "They willingly gave up things that they had, they put up with us being in a different building…they were absolutely amazing through this process."
Not all of the faculty of the Humanities Division are back in their original offices, said Copenhaver.
"The Humanities Division will not be back to normal until the auditorium is finished, I do not consider us completely healed, until that project is done," she added.
Cooksey said that looking back over the last two years, one of the things that she wished she had done differently was communicating better with the campus.
"If I had it all to do again, I would try to emphasize and do better with communications," said Cooksey. "I've sent out periodic e-mails to faculty and staff, letting them know the status, but I'm so immersed in this everyday that I forget everybody doesn't know the time table and the progress."
"If you're just standing back, you're like, 'Why aren't they working on Caudill yet? Why are they still on Ramer?' So I understand those frustrations and I'm sure if I wasn't in this position that I would feel the same way," she added.
"I'm extremely thankful that we had no loss of life, and that we had no injury," Cooksey continued.
"That only happened because we were well prepared in advance by doing our drills…whenever we see a school in the news go through something like this…I wonder, 'were they as well prepared as we were?' I'm thankful that we were so well prepared on that front," she added.
"We had a great response to it, and I think that's attributed to the fact that we'd already done evacuation drills and had our building coordinators in place," said Campus Police Chief William Rogan.
"Emergency preparedness, of course, in our department is very important," said Lynch. "But it increased my desire to do even more. Since then, we've been able to coordinate a lot of different things with the Sumner County EMA."
"Our building coordinators are now Community Emergency Response Trained," Lynch continued. "I'm fixing to go to a CERT instructor class where I can come back and teach even more people on campus."
"We continue to change [the emergency] plan, and that's why we did the drill a week or two ago," said Cooksey."When the tornado hit, it was a Friday afternoon, that's not a peak period for us. We wanted to know, would we have enough space in the different areas if the tornado hit during a peak time."
"The things that we learned the day of the tornado, women, take your purse with you. We had lots of female staff leave their purse behind, therefore they lost their car key, their house key, everything," Cooksey continued.
"We have a lot more flashlights on campus because if you have a tornado, you lose power. We're buying generators, to run more of our critical computers and campus police command center, so that even if the campus loses power, we'll have a generator to run their operations," Cooksey added.
Lynch said that if a tornado were to hit campus again, it would be handled even better than before.
"I can't point out anything that we did wrong because there was no loss of life, and that's our main priority is to save lives," Lynch said. "Because of that event, now we were able to look back and see what we would like to do differently."
Lynch also stressed the importance of students taking emergency drills on campus seriously.
"It could mean a life or death in the real situation," she said. "They are very important, even though people may see them as annoying, time consuming or a hassle…they are very very important. Because of those drills, lives were saved."
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