In this new Uncovered report, Mold U puts a spotlight the growing problems of toxic mold in college and university residence halls.
A team of reporters spent four months sifting through nearly 4,000 pages of mold-related documents to identify mold cases. They interviewed dozens of students, experts and school officials.
This work fell under the umbrella of Uncovered, a statewide collaboration led by The Post and Courier. Uncovered’s goal is to explore questionable government conduct and issues while supporting community news organizations amid a growing landscape of news deserts.
For this project, the Uncovered partnership teamed up with student journalists at Â鶹Сòòò½´«Ã½ at Â鶹Сòòò½´«Ã½ and The (Clemson) Tiger.
The sudden death earlier this year of Amya Carr, co-captain of South Carolina State University’s dance team, spawned a still-unfinished state investigation while continuing to raise questions about whether authorities properly looked into what happened.
The Citadel, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina, Clemson, Francis Marion University, Furman University, Winthrop University, Â鶹Сòòò½´«Ã½ branch campuses, more.
In August 2021, Coastal Carolina University junior Lindsay Kramer hadn’t yet fully moved into her room in Piedmont Hall when she discovered an unwanted visitor: mold growing in her bathroom.
Clemson University received 321 reports or responses to mold in university housing over the past two years, internal university records revealed, an ongoing issue that the university said isn’t caused by malfunctioning systems but by moisture buildup in individual rooms, often due to misuse of thermostat settings.
After a handful of inspections found little evidence of mold in just a few rooms at Lander University’s Chipley Hall, a full building inspection turned up 46 instances.