Sewage once again floods Matthew’s Mug

Audrey Tempelsman Guest Writer

Monday through Saturday, sweat-soaked students crowd Matthew’s Mug, the campus bar and club. But lately, bodily secretions of a different sort have dominated the dance floor. The sewage backup that flooded the Mug on Jan. 27th recurred last Tuesday, prompting a shut-down and disappointing Jazz Night devotees.

The Vassar community began to express alarm after Wednesday’s snow storm extended the closure. “I wish someone would tell me what’s been going on,” said Security Officer Betty Francis, who is regularly stationed at the Mug. “The whole thing sounds disgusting.”

Though the recent sewage problems are new to Main Building, backups of this sort are not uncommon. “Like at your house, when you flush or use water, it goes out to a pipe and then either into a septic tank or into your municipal sewer system,” explained Director of Facility Operations for Buildings & Grounds (B&G) Kiki Williams. “But when there’s a backup, the sewage returns to a building’s lowest point. In Main, of course, the Mug is at the lowest point.”

On the night of the first incident, Mug Bartender David Le ’07 was serving beer with Mug Manager Kevin Thomas at the Fatman Scoop concert. Le recalled that Thomas went downstairs to get a keg from the Mug refrigerator at around 1 a.m and discovered sewage seeping through the floor of the facility.

At around 1:30 a.m., the party was shut down due to concerns about sewer fumes, expressed by the B&G personnel whom Thomas had called.

Le and Thomas still had to return the remaining beer to the Mug refrigerator. Upon entering, Le was shocked by what he saw. “The elevator landing is slightly higher than the Mug proper, but it was already wet,” he said. “We walked the keg into the back of the Mug where there were a few inches of raw sewage, with disintegrating toilet paper and feces floating in the water.”

The recent flooding was not nearly as severe. “The floor was wet, but the situation wasn’t horrible,” said Retreat Director of Marketing and Sustainability Ken Oldehoff. “If you put the bar in the basement, these things are going to happen.”

Oldehoff called B&G, who promptly sent over personnel to sanitize the facility and examine the piping. They found that the sewage backups have a consistent culprit: “When the line was snaked 334 feet, nothing but paper towel was pulled out,” said Williams.

Since Main’s sewage system is self-contained, it is possible that those who live and work in the building are responsible for improper paper towel dispensation on a large scale. The problem may also lie in the piping.

Until the ground thaws, however, B&G is stymied. “We’ll have to wait until it’s warmer,” said William. “Then, we’ll put a camera in the pipe to make sure the line is not collapsed. If it’s a matter of paper towels, there’s nothing to fix. If it’s collapsed, that’s another story.”

Should the problem persist and result in continuing closures, Patrick Gerety ’07, who runs Trivia Night at the Mug on Mondays, believes that the result would be “an utter devastation to social life at Vassar.”

“The Mug is the only place on campus in which to dance, see professional musicians, and support various clubs such as FlyPeople, C.A.R.E.S. [Counseling and Assistance in Response to Rape and Exploitive Sexual Activity], Poder Latino, Caribbean Students Alliance and others,” Gerety continued. “It’s a staple space for students.”