As faithful readers of this publication, you’ve noticed our “AU at War” series over the past few weeks. Our investigative reporter Sylvia Carignan has helped expose AU’s chemical-ridden history and gave us some answers to the rumors about the chemical weapons in our backyard. (Spoiler: They’re true.) However, as we come to the end of our series, we’re left wondering: What is to be done about all this? Are AU and the Army Corps of Engineers really going to let potentially dangerous chemical weapons just sit there? What do we do if, for some god-awful reason, they strike gold and find mustard gas nearby? The answers to these questions aren’t known by many of us, but as occupants of this area, we should know the answers.
We’re not advocating that all tour guides now give a long-winded explanation of AU’s chemical warfare history on Freshmen Day. However, our expose has highlighted the transparency issues surrounding these potential hazards, and we feel that AU students need to be made more aware of what’s really happening on campus and in AU’s backyard. We’ve all heard rumors of the weapons, but how many of us actually know where they are or could be? How many of us knew that the Child Development Center on South side was closed in 2002 because of arsenic found there? The answer is (not surprisingly) very few of us, a fact of which the administration shouldn’t be proud.
So what should be done? Are we in danger of a chemical outbreak if construction crews were to unearth something? Chances are very low, but the University does have evacuation procedures in case such an incident arises, procedures that we all should know. Especially as construction begins on the new campus plan in the next few years, which could unearth long-buried artifacts, AU students should be aware of these procedures, even if they’re just outlined in the student handbook.
As we’ve learned, we have little reason to panic and run to the hills, but we do need to become more aware of these weapons in our own backyard. This isn’t a problem that is going to disappear overnight, and there’s not even a guarantee that all the buried weapons will ever be found, but in the remote case that something does happen, we need to be prepared.
