Campus

chronicle.durhamcollege.ca

February 26 - March 18, 2019

The Chronicle

17

Photograph by Rachelle Baird

The piping to service the cam pus stretches for kilom etres. The red pipe is for the sprinkler system .

Ensuring there's a good flow on campus
Rachelle Baird
The Chronicle

While students are busy learning
and professors teaching, the main­
tenance department is hard at work
taking care of the university and
college campuses.
The maintenance department is
made up of 21 workers.
There are three plumbers, three
HVAC technicians, three electri­
cians, two BAS technicians, two
locksmiths, two carpenters, two
trade helpers and four general
maintenance workers.
Rey Theophille is a plumber
who has been employed at DC and
UOIT for 14 years.
He says not only does the staff
take care of the Oshawa campus­
es, they also maintain Whitby, the
Pickering Learning Centre and
other areas.
"We also do the satellite campus,
Uxbridge and Bowmanville. So we
give them some support as well,"
Theophille says.
According to Theophille, main­
tenance of the university takes
up most of their time. "It's funny,
the university is a newer building.
So you think it would require less
maintenance," he says.
There have been a few issues
with flooding, such as two eroded
fire hydrants which exploded and
caused flooding in the roadway, a
frozen sprinkler in the UA build­
ing, and a few floods during reno­
vations, according to Theophille.
As for how much piping, there are
kilometres serving the campuses.
Theophille says plumbing prob-

HOURS
DC I UOIT
lems have been caused by items left
in toilets that shouldn't be found
there.
"We have removed pop cans,
cellphones and jewellery from the
toilets," he says.
They even found half a chicken
in the toilet once, says Theophille.
And one semester some time ago,
someone frequently defecated on
the floor of the now-demolished
Simcoe building, he says.
The plumbing department main­
tains the backflow system which en­
sures no contaminated water gets
into the drinking water.
The plumbing department also
helps flush out the HVAC system,
which maintains temperatures of
the buildings.
Theophille says there have not
been many problems with heat,
but at one time there were issues in
keeping the buildings cool but they
have since replaced the air condi­
tioning system.
Photograph by Rachelle Baird
Theophille says the staff are busy
all year long. Work shifts start as
early as 8 a.m. and finish at 10 p.m. Backflow system s prevent bad water from entering good water.
as that is when most classes end.H

Durham College and UOIT's
lead plum ber Rey Theophille
working in his office below the
UOIT Science Building.