Barred with two orange traffic cones and six paper signs from San Francisco State University’s Facilities Management and Plumbing Shop, the water fountain on the first floor of the Humanities Building near the 115 Lobby has been out of service for more than a week, and may be out of service permanently. 

According to the signs, the water fountain was installed in May, has been vandalized twice and clogged with food debris and trash. A line in blue text reads, “may need to REMOVE this water fountain due to repeated vandalism.”

Last week, a yellow mop bucket caught brown, murky liquid overflowing from the fountain. 

Ricardo Gomes, a professor in the School of Design, works in the Nathan Shapira Design Archive Research & Reading Room around the corner from the fountain. Gomes said the substance on the fountain before it was cleaned up looked like sewage.

“It just looked totally disregarded, like nobody was attending to it,” Gomes said. “At least someone did come by and cleaned up that dirty brown water, which looked very toxic.”

The fountain was first reported broken on Oct. 13, according to Facilities Services. 

Despite their statement on the signs about a permanent shutdown, Facilities Services told Golden Gate Xpress that as soon as the parts needed for repairs are delivered, the fountain will be back in service.

Jessica Phung, a third-year psychology student, said that she did not get the chance to use the fountain before it was out of service.

“It wasn’t here before last semester, and now it’s here, and now there’s a bunch of paper on it,” Phung said.

She said she often faces issues when refilling her water in the building, like a red light filter status or unreliable sensors.

“Sometimes the sensor wouldn’t work when you put your hand over it, but when you walk by and don’t want the water, it turns on anyway,” Phung said. “I don’t know how it works.”

Armond Lara, a third-year computer science student, said he noticed the water fountain was out of service over a week ago.

“I saw black and brown liquid coming out of it and spilling onto the floor,” Lara said. 

Lara usually takes classes in Thornton Hall and the Science & Engineering Innovation Center, but noticed the broken water fountain when walking around the Humanities Building. 

“I haven’t seen one [water fountain] break down and they’re more reliable,” Lara said, referring to the fountains in the SEIC building.

At the time of publication, Facilities Services has not elaborated on how exactly the water fountains were vandalized, nor provided a specific timeline of when the parts are to be delivered.