The Martin University Center is closed today as professional plumbers performed a probative smoke test. Staff members and students are not allowed to enter the building during the procedure.

Some visitors to the 2 ½ year old building have reported hints of a foul smell throughout the first floor and the foyer of the second floor. Wesleyan maintenance investigated the smell and searched for a resolution to permanently fix the leak without luck.

The next step is to perform a smoke test throughout the whole building. Pipes and vents will be pumped full of smoke to reveal any unknown leaks.

Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Dennis Hall believed closing the Martin Center on Jan 31st was the best solution to find the problem in the building. “Right now the density of students on campus is a lot lower, so there’s less of a disruption, but this would have been much preferred to do,” he said.

Some students weren’t aware of the MUC closing but found other solutions.

Theater major Kyrsten Howard intended to grab lunch from the student center and was surprised to find the doors locked. “Honestly, it has never been locked before other than in the middle of the night when it was closed,” she said.

However, she decided to change her lunch plans. “I’m probably going to go to Subway or something similar nearby and work on schoolwork before my next class.”

Freshman and campus resident Joep Van Wijk was planning to order Starbucks Refreshers from The Coffee Shop for him and his friend. Instead of using his normal coffee stop, he said, “I’m going to go back to my dorm and maybe drink some water. I might get some coffee from outside [campus].”

Although neither Howard nor Van Wijk ever noticed a smell in the MUC, both students understood the importance of the closure.

For those students and employees that have smelled the unpleasant smell, Hall felt that creating a safe and undisturbed environment is important. He said, “For one, [to] all of our students, that [is] supposed to be a student space. And if you walk in and [it] smells like that, you don’t want to spend time there.” Secondly, he was concerned for the employees that work in the building and how they smelled it daily.

The results of the smoke test have not been revealed at this time.