Tre’Kwan Raynor
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) – The Dacus Library at Winthrop University, which was closed for a few days last month after bed bugs were discovered on several pieces of furniture, is now free of the pests, according to school officials.

The library was closed for 67 hours Sept. 19-22 and five hours Sept. 28 while the building was treated and inspected.

Justin Oates, vice president of finance and business and Wes Love, head of facilities management, said students should have no worries about bed bugs in the library after the extermination procedures were done.

“We care a lot about the safety of the students; this is why we closed the library for days to make sure everything was inspected thoroughly. We could have opened back up sooner, but we wanted to make sure everything was handled before doing so,” said Oates.

He said he entire library was treated with multiple methods and inspected twice. The first inspection was conducted by the pest control contractor and the second, conducted by the facilities management team, included a K-9 unit to sniff out bed bugs that may not have been found the first time.

According to Love, facilities management used “evasive measures” to wrap all of the furniture in plastic and remove it from the library immediately.

The furniture that contained the bed bugs is currently in storage and Love has requested it be held there for a while.

A number of students, especially those who commute, said the library closure was a serious inconvenience for them.

“It sucks a lot,” said Bree Forest, a dance education major and commuter student.

She said she relies heavily on the library to complete assignments.

An email sent to faculty and staff Sept. 19 by Provost Debra Boyd asked faculty members “to be as flexible as possible in working with students who may be unable to complete assignments for lack of access to materials in the library.”

A Dacus employee, who didn’t want to be identified, said library staff were told the bed bugs came from a student who lived off-campus.