On Campus
Learning the tools of the trade
Students headed to New Orleans get a lesson in home building from University Facilities
Students anticipating their trip to Louisiana as part of Alternative Winter Break have spent several weeks getting to know each other in preparation for the time they will spend building homes for Hurricane Katrina victims as part of Habitat for Humanity.
What they hadn’t learned, until November 30, was how to build those homes.
Chris Small, an operations area manager in University Facilities and head of the carpentry shop on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses, and a team of facilities employees stepped in to help. Amy Johnson, program manager at Livingston Student Center and coordinator of the New Orleans trip, planned to have the students train to learn the basics of erecting walls, running wire, and sawing and nailing wood planks at Home Depot. But a chance encounter with Rutgers Environmental and Health Services (REHS) led to the student-staff collaboration.
“We are just more mentally prepared,” said Manny Algarin, a Rutgers junior majoring in philosophy and economics. “If they hand us a hammer we’re not going to think, ‘Are we really going to hammer some nails?’ Now it’s like, ‘Where’s the wood, where are the hammers, let’s get to work.’”
Algarin is a student coordinator of the New Orleans trip. The group of 20 students – who had to go through a selective application process – will travel to Louisiana on January 3, 2008, and stay for 11 days. They will work with Habitat New Orleans and stay at Camp Hope, a converted school that houses volunteers.
Algarin worked with Rutgers staff and other students to secure support for the program, which came from several student governing bodies and the Department of Alumni Relations.
The students, none of whom will receive credit for the trip, spent seven Fridays this past semester getting to know each other and the region they are visiting. They watched Spike Lee’s four-hour documentary When the Levees Broke, engaged in team-building activities, and studied the government’s response to the hurricane and ensuing devastating floods.
“I’ve been really wanting to do this for a long time, and I thought it would be better to go with a group of students with similar interests,” said Sara Afayee, a sophomore. “The classes we have every Friday get us in the mentality we need to go there and give us a chance to know each other as a group.”
Staff members from University Facilities have trained students before – Johnson met up with REHS and facilities staff while they were coordinating another training session with the Livingston Theater Company, teaching them how to use power tools to build sets. It was then that they made arrangements to train the students who will be traveling to New Orleans.
“We show [the Alternative Winter Break students] how to put up sheetrock, the proper way to carry and pick up sheetrock, how to use the proper protective gear – safety glasses, gloves, dust masks,” said Small.
“This was a special request. It’s new for students but also for the people who work for facilities. It’s good for us to be familiar with the students we serve here at Rutgers,” he said.
Alex Ruiz, a university safety officer with Rutgers Environmental Health and Safety, said at the training that most students don’t know much about the work that goes into keeping the university running in good condition.
“This is good for the students and the staff. We’re all part of the same community,” Ruiz said. “A lot of the students are always wondering what’s going on here in these barracks, so we get a chance to show them.”
The 20 students arrived at 77 Street 1603 on the Livingston Campus, shed their jackets, scarves, and knit gloves, and donned thick work gloves and safety glasses that resembled sporting eyewear, with a cool red and silver tint. They get to keep their safety gear to use while in Louisiana.
Ruiz reminded them that they should focus on safety when using tools, and remember not to stress their bodies. “Take frequent breaks,” he said. “A lot of students get so into the work that they forget. You don’t want to exhaust yourselves.”
The students started by learning how to build a basic wall frame; eventually they erected the frame and ran wiring through it. They also learned how to use a powered table saw and how to effectively use a hammer, nails, and planks of wood.
“We were talking amongst ourselves that this could be a great three-credit course. The guys were very informed, very experienced, and they were able to communicate very easily,” Algarin said. “Building a wall seems like a really specialized thing, but they taught us how to do that. And to do it in two hours, I thought, ‘Hey, I could build a house.’”