St. John’s University shifted classes out of the Peter J. Tobin College of Business building this week after a pipe burst caused flooding and forced the building to close indefinitely, according to a Public Safety announcement.
The response was to move classes to remote instruction, and later to alternative classrooms on campus. The flooding created substantial problems and could lead to additional relocations, with public safety urging students to monitor their university email for updates.
The Office of Financial Services has also been temporarily relocated to the Office of the Registrar in Newman Hall, Room 102.
For students and faculty who rely on Tobin for daily classes, the closure has added uncertainty to the semester’s routine. With the building closed until further notice, instructors and departments have had to adjust schedules and locations while the university assesses the damage and coordinates repairs.
For Jessie Bridgelal, a junior year finance major at Tobin, that adjustment has been difficult. Bridgelal told The Torch that the locations for his classes are announced only a few hours before they are scheduled to begin, which made getting to class more difficult, particularly in the cold weather.
“They’ve been giving regular updates on the situation, but there’s still no timeline for a return to the Tobin Building,” Bridgewall said.
Like many Tobin students, Bridgewall had remote classes on Monday, but noted that his subsequent classes were all held in St. John’s Hall or Marillac Hall.
The flooding surprised many students in Tobin, including Patrick Golis, another junior in the school of business.
“I was shocked,” Golis told The Torch. “Hopefully, if anyone was in the building, they made it out OK.”
Golis said the temporary shift online was more convenient for him as a commuter from the Maspeth section of Queens, even as he acknowledged the larger disruption for those with multiple courses in the building.
“It didn’t have much of an impact on me since it was my only class of the day,” Golis said. “If anything, it was more convenient having class online so I could go straight to work after the Microsoft Teams meeting ended.” He added that traffic on the Long Island Expressway can make commuting frustrating.
The pipe burst came after Campus Facilities and Services posted a cold-weather alert on building doors, warning that freezing temperatures could affect pipes if basic precautions were not followed.
“Due to the sub-freezing temperatures over the next 10 days, it is imperative that all windows remain closed to avoid freezing pipes,” the flyer read.
Campus Facilities and Services also urged students and faculty to refrain from opening windows and to keep heating devices on. The notice served as a reminder that even brief exposure to cold air can increase the risk of frozen pipes during prolonged low temperatures.
The Torch contacted the Tobin Faculty and Campus Facilities and Services for comment. Officials did not provide a statement, but are working to address the situation as quickly as possible.
The closure adds to a disrupted stretch for Monday classes in Tobin. Classes were canceled during a snow day on Jan. 26, and the university is scheduled to close again on Feb. 16 for Presidents’ Day. By week six of the semester, Tobin Monday classes will have met in person only twice.
