More Poe Hall delays: Results likely not released until end of semester
The wait for answers about PCB testing at Poe Hall could be longer than anticipated, multiple sources tell 5 On Your Side.
When Chancellor Randy Woodson told WRAL News North Carolina State University would release Poe Hall PCB testing results at “the end of April,” students and workers breathed a collective sigh of relief. It was, after all, the information they’d been waiting on for five months. Now, the wait will likely be longer, according to multiple 5 On Your Side sources.
WRAL's complete coverage of Poe Hall
The PCB testing conducted by university-backed consultants has been the top focus for N.C. State ever since it closed down Poe Hall last November.
Since the closure, more than 170 people have reported to 5 On Your Side they received a cancer diagnosis after working or studying in Poe Hall. It is not known if the PCBs, a group of now-banned toxic chemicals, detected in Poe are a cause.
To many, the testing has served as a roadblock to answers about the health impacts of working and studying in Poe Hall.
Woodson has said multiple times that the university would be unable to release significant health-related information until building testing was complete.
Last fall, preliminary testing of Poe Hall revealed PCB levels 38 times greater than what the EPA deems unsafe. The testing and reports of cancer prompted the university to close Poe Hall, but health information released by the university since then has been hard to come by.
One of the most significant updates included an announcement that Poe Hall would like be closed for the rest of 2024.
Multiple sources told 5 On Your Side that university leadership is now reporting that students and workers will need to wait until the end of the semester to learn more about the environment inside Poe Hall.
During a meeting, Charles Maimone, N.C. State's vice chancellor for finance and administration, allegedly told faculty that Poe testing results could be available by end of May.
When asked to confirm this the university’s director of public relations, Mary Cole Pike, told WRAL that she was not in the meeting.
“I was not present in the meeting you're referencing, so I can't confirm exactly what was said,” Pike said. “We do not have a firm date for when we expect results.”
Pike did not elaborate on the reason behind the changed timeline.
Beyond the hundreds of students and staff who have reported illnesses to 5 On Your Side after spending time in Poe Hall, many seemingly healthy former Poe Hall occupants wait anxiously as well.
Pike told WRAL 5 On Your Side that the North Campus’s main distribution frame, which provides connectivity to all of North Campus, is housed inside Poe Hall and is currently being worked on. She said the work has impeded the testing timeline.
