Construction crews set up barriers before Thanksgiving break, blocking access and inspecting the area where a majority of students and staff eat and walk through to access food, but manager and co-owner of “Quickly,” Jason Wu said he has not received an update from campus administration.
Due to gas inspections conducted in November, walking around the Cesar Chavez Building has become an obstacle for both SF State students and faculty to navigate as the semester winds down.
“They shut everything down the Friday before Thanksgiving and we are still having problems with hot water and other appliances in our kitchen,” Wu said. “Our kitchen had no access to all gas appliances for cooking food on campus all week during break and we still don’t know why the area is blocked off.”
Wu said a construction crew came early Monday after classes resumed from Thanksgiving break and restored gas to the building, but he has not been notified as to when the fence barrier will be taken down, or why it is even there.
An email was sent to Wu by the Administration and Finance department, and Wu said the requests on the email were never acknowledged by him or his staff.
“I got a notice through email that gas would be shut off from Monday, November 20 to Wednesday, November 22, 2017, but that never happened,” Wu said. “And now they have this green fence blocking access not only to students and staff to go around but my employees as well who have to take all of our products through the Bookstore just to get around.”
Wu said business has been slowed because he sees students walking away.
“Students know our brand Quickly and sometimes I feel like students are always in a rush and just going around the building can be time consuming or inconvenient,” Wu said. “So right now we are not as busy as usual.”
Gareth Beilby, Construction Inspector at Consolidated CM Inc., said hot water and appliances running on natural gas would be affected.
“There may also be a reduction in building heat, during this shutdown,” Beilby said. “We regret any inconvenience.”
The inconvenience has been noticed by students and staff. Sandra Fitzgerald, assistant professor for the Counseling College of Health and Social Sciences, said she has been at SF State for five years and has never seen or heard anything like this before.
“We ourselves as faculty did not receive a notice and I just wonder why they could not get it done during the winter break in December,” Fitzgerald said. “It would have been preferable but for someone like myself who walks from Burk Hall, I can say I use that walkway a lot.”
SF State fine arts major, Lily Martinez, said she noticed the fence but assumed it was just part of all the other construction happening on campus.
“Who knows what’s really going on but people’s businesses should not be affected because this might be their livelihoods on the line,” Martinez said.
Wu said it is frustrating that no one has come up to him personally to explain why exactly the construction site is up blocking access around the building but hopes it never happens again.
“We would appreciate if any future repairs can be done when school is not in session and any future major service interruptions will be notified by regular mail or in person as well,” Wu said.
