Students at the Rockville campus going to their counseling appointments will not find it in the Counseling Building. The building has been closed due to flooding on the basement floor, which has been reoccurring since the summer of 2018.

According to Dr. Tonya Mason, the Dean of Student Success and Rockville Student Affairs, the floor could have potentially caused health risks to the faculty and staff who worked in the buildings.

The first flood occurred in July 2018, when the flooding became unmanagable following consecutive storms which, according to the Baltimore Sun, set record levels of regional daily rainfall. Water had risen high enough to make the ground floor uninhabitable.

Safety and Security, Disability and Support Services and the Maryland Veterans’ Affairs Disability Claims office were three separate departments that had to move after the initial flood. It took about three weeks for them to completely move the departments to a temporary space in the Science Building.

Equipment was damaged, drywall had to be replaced, water had to be drained and floors had to be cleaned. After moving these facilities back into their designated office spaces in the Counseling Building, the flooding problems persisted despite efforts to control the issue.

The second floor, which houses most counseling offices and the waiting room, did not have to move when the initial flooding occurred.

“It is expensive to move people out and then move them back in,” said Mason. “After it happened immediately again, they realized it would create a disruption for students and that was enough.”