Since June 2025, substantial construction – including asbestos abatement – has been under way at Delany Hall. Despite the inherent health risks that arise from any construction project, especially one involving the disruption of asbestos, the Queens College administration has  failed to ensure that proper protocols are being followed to protect those in and around the building. 

The situation is emblematic of environmental racism, as these construction hazards have disproportionately injured Delany community members, who are primarily people of color. Moreover, the Queens College administration has repeatedly diminished the Delany community’s evidence and experiences of harm. Even as employees documented and reported serious respiratory illness together with recurrent dust and polluted air, the administration dragged its feet. Queens College’s leaders were not transparent about the construction’s potential risks, nor have they taken appropriate steps to protect the health of employees and students, such as providing a timely and adequate relocation plan and restricting access to the building. 

We demand action to protect the health and safety of our Queens College community! Add your name to demand the QC administration take common-sense action to keep our community safe and healthy.

Background on Delany’s Environmental Crisis

Delany Hall is home to the SEEK program, College Now, Africana Studies, the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding (CERRU), and the Office of Compliance and Education Lab Classroom. SEEK occupies 90% of Delany Hall, and the program’s 65+ faculty and staff serve over 500 students. 

After spending 25 years housed in temporary and off-campus buildings, in 1993, the SEEK program moved into Delany Hall, which was named for Queens College’s first Black SEEK director. Dr. Lloyd T. Delany was a highly regarded professor of education who fought to desegregate Long Island schools. Dedicated to house the SEEK program and Africana Studies, Delany Hall has long served as an informal community hub for students who have experienced systematic inequities, as well as the faculty and staff who serve them.

The timeline of Delany Hall’s construction hazards makes clear the administration’s lack of care for the building’s community. 

• Construction to renovate Delany Hall began in June 2025
• SEEK personnel continued to hold office hours and tutoring in Delany Hall to serve incoming freshmen as part of their summer program. In July, Delany staff started experiencing upper respiratory illness. 
• Queens College Buildings and Grounds asked Delany faculty and staff to leave the premises, beginning on August 11th, to facilitate demolition.
• On August 26th, SEEK personnel returned to Delany to find thick layers of dust in their workspace. Dust was seeping through cracks and coating doors, window sills, desks, and other furniture. Delany faculty and staff subsequently experienced adverse health effects, including stuffy noses, itchy throats and ears, and metallic taste in their mouths. Some suffered headaches. One employee had their first asthma attack in nearly 25 years and spent six hours under observation at the emergency room. 
• On August 28th, Delany leaders notified the QC administration about these hazards, but the administration failed to heed their cries for help, including their requests for air purifiers together with a deep clean for the entire building. Assurances were provided about the safety of the building and efficacy of the HVAC, with no supporting evidence. Employee illnesses were not acknowledged.
• SEEK decided to relocate on September 5th to spaces in Rosenthal Library and Jefferson Hall, with student services beginning on September 11th. Africana Studies relocated to Powdermaker Hall on September 10th. College Now relocated that same week to Jefferson Hall. Relocation was not offered proactively and was only facilitated by the administration in response to the advocacy and insistence of program staff in the building. Throughout this process, department heads in Delany were never called to a meeting with the administration.
• At a September 25th meeting of the President’s Council, the administration publicly announced that the building was safe, despite documented evidence to the contrary. 
• On October 7th, Queens College B&G wrote to Delany Hall leaders, stating that the building was cleaned “within standard,” that the HVAC is operable, and that the Queens College Office of Environmental Health and Safety has walked through the building and deemed air quality safe. No evidence of any of those assertions has been provided. B&G denied the Delany community’s requests for air purifiers, and effectively blamed building occupants for the rodent infestation, saying they “need partnership with building occupants by not leaving windows open or food sources available to attract unwanted pests.”

The administration’s inadequate response to health and safety concerns is a pattern at Delany and across the Queens College campus.

• The QC administration failed to properly investigate and respond to a racist and antisemitic incident against Delany Hall on January 6, 2022. The PSC had to file a grievance to get the administration to act.
• The QC administration has inadequately responded to complaints of mold on campus. In some cases, mold is covered up cosmetically or staff and faculty are told to clean it themselves.
• The QC administration ignored concerns about chemicals and lack of ventilation in the Colwin Hall biology laboratory classrooms, even after the untimely death of beloved staff and faculty member Cesar Castillo in early 2023. For many years, Castillo worked in Colwin’s laboratory classrooms, where dangerous chemicals were used to preserve specimens for dissection and the only ventilation was from open windows. The college’s Chemical Hygiene Plan was not distributed in a timely way to those working in Colwin, in violation of OSHA regulations. Other CUNY colleges post their Chemical Hygiene Plan on their websites; Queens College still does not do so. Dissections were eventually discontinued at Colwin in February 2024 for safety reasons. There were also concerns raised about unsafe conditions at Colwin during asbestos removal and construction.