UCA plans air monitors after illnesses

CONWAY — University of Central Arkansas officials decided Friday to install airquality monitors in an academic building where some students reported feeling sick Thursday.

Eleven people, including five students, were taken to a hospital Thursday, some as a precaution. All were treated and released.

While UCA works to take additional measures to ensure Burdick Hall is safe, classes normally held there will meet in the Doyne Health Sciences Building next week, UCA spokesman Jeff Pitchford said Friday.

Tests of Burdick Hall’s air quality by the Conway Fire Department and the Environmental Enterprise Group showed oxygen levels had returned to normal levels, UCA said in a news release Friday. And no further problems have been reported, Pitchford said earlier.

Even so, only staff members in the information-technology section in Burdick Hall’s basement were working there Friday.

“We still don’t know what caused [the problem],” UCA spokesman Venita Jenkins said.

UCA plans to have carbonmonoxide detectors and oxygen-level meters installed in Burdick Hall next week. The school also will seek an additional test from an independent company specializing in environmental concerns.

“We want to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and that is why we are taking these additional steps,” UCA President Tom Courtway said in the release.

For now, though, Pitchford said, “Everything is working like it should. It’s just kind of weird.”