By: Ainslie Smith
“I may be just a little biased in this statement, but the maintenance and operations of this campus are the heartbeat.” - Stephen Frawley, mechanical superintendent
Every day, hundreds of employees maintain the Georgia Southern campus in various capacities. Preventative maintenance is the key to sustaining the beauty and integrity of the university grounds. Everything from the buildings to the sidewalks to the air conditioning handlers require a watchful eye from the maintenance workers, who run a tight ship upkeeping the university.
So in the hypothetical situation in which everyone were to disappear from the campus, what would happen to the landscape and infrastructure? Multiple experts and operational overseers from Georgia Southern give us an insight into what the downfall of an abandoned campus could look like.
No One in Sight; Now What?
It will all start when the electricity goes out. Without power, the air handlers will shut off, and the air within the buildings will no longer be conditioned or circulated. Within the week, the walls will grow molds, and the paint will begin to crack and peel due to accumulated moisture.
At the same time, the untrodden sidewalks and hard surfaces will start to gather moss, lichen, and weeds. The typically mowed grass will grow past its usual one-inch allowance and creep over the walkways and asphalt.
The “Money-Walk” as referred to by Maurice Coley, the superintendent of grounds operations, is the most manicured path on campus and requires daily upkeep in areas such as Sweetheart Circle and Southern Drive to maintain its polished look. This area will experience rapid physical transformations and quickly become unrecognizable, Coley says.
Alan Harvey, a professor of the Georgia Southern biology department of nearly 25 years, described the probable succession of the natural order on campus if people were to disappear. “We almost have some hint of this from the pandemic,” said Harvey, “and it [would] not take long for animals to become more noticeable.”
First, small rodents like rabbits would emerge from their usually suppressed presence in the thicket. Shortly after, predators such as coyotes would follow their prey into the open areas.
Invasive species of insects like cigarette beetles will make their way into special facilities such as the Herbarium in the Biological Sciences Building. Harvey described a recent instance of this particular pest invading the inventory, and if there were no one to take care of the infestation, “there would be nothing to stop them this time and they would just end up consuming the whole collection, and it would just be piles of sawdust,” he says
As the overgrowth continues, vines, shrubs, and trees will begin to cover and penetrate the infrastructure, growing into the gutters and causing water to stagnate on the roofs and degrade their integrity. Eventually, tree roots would lift the pavers of the walkways, allowing for further invasion of plants between the concrete slabs.
During the rainy seasons, fallen limbs and debris will clog drainage systems, and without maintenance workers to clear the blockages, water will sit and dramatically change the environment. These spaces will become a habitat for different species and invite more insects like mosquitoes into the area.
Bryan Rountree, the director of mechanical and structural operations, says that as temperatures drop, the remaining water in the pipes will freeze and cause them to burst. Over time, roots will grow into the pipes and block them, pervading the plumage systems and after many years, roots will emerge from the interior drains of the buildings.
Rountree says that after about five years, the university would look more like a forest with buildings in it, rather than a college campus. While the newer buildings are constructed of steel and concrete, older buildings like the Marvin Pittman Administration building are made of wood and brick. Without the upkeep and repointing of the brick mortar and the additional stresses of vine overgrowth of species like Virginia Creepers, and elemental weathering, the building exteriors would begin to deteriorate.
“At some point, you’ll probably see termites come in and destroy the wood in the building and then it would eventually just fall,” says Rountree
The natural succession of the plant life across the campus would first see the faster growing, smaller organisms such as black willows and pepper vines overtaking the terrain, before being overgrown by pines or oaks.
“They set the stage and prepare, basically, for the slower growing but tougher things,” says Harvey, “Eventually, it'll settle down and you'll have a community that's pretty stable unless something else comes along to destabilize it.”
Not Today, but One Day
Although we cannot be sure, one day the infrastructure may reflect that of the ancient ruins we marvel at today, even if no one is around to see it.