A preliminary assessment determined that a “localized structural issue” caused damage that forced the evacuation of Penn State’s Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building, according to a university update on Thursday.
No foul play is suspected in the Wednesday afternoon incident.
The building, which opened earlier this year, was evacuated at about 1:30 p.m. after what a 911 dispatch described as a “sound of an explosion.” Alpha Chief Tony Berrena told StateCollege.com partner publication Onward State that crews observed a crack in the wall of the building from the second floor to the roof and that the floor had settled about 2 inches.
No one was injured during the incident.
The building remains closed, and engineers from Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant, along with outside experts, “will conduct a full examination to definitively determine the cause of the damage,” according to the university.
“The Registrar has communicated with instructors whose classes have been impacted by the loss of classroom space,” Penn State wrote. “Students who had classes in that building should watch for communication from their instructors regarding the location and format of their classes for the rest of the fall semester.”
Employees who normally work in the building will receive information from their department head or supervisor.
The $128 million, six-story Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building opened in January after more than two years of construction. It is home to the departments of anthropology, political science and sociology and criminology, the School of Public Policy, Criminal Justice Research Center, Matson Museum of Anthropology, McCourtney Institute for Democracy and Social Science Research Institute.
