IU Trustees approve $17.8 million renovation for Teter residence halls

The IU Board of trustees unanimously approved the plan in a meeting Friday afternoon at IU Southeast. The plan also includes the installation of new sprinkler systems and accessibility upgrades.

IU spent nearly $300,000 cleaning up mold that was found in all Teter buildings last year. Old heating and cooling units were to blame.

Those units, found underneath the windows in each room, were installed in the early 1980s, said P.K. Patel, university engineer and director of engineering services. Since then, IU has expanded and increased the pressure in its underground chilled water system to meet the needs of a growing campus. The heating and cooling units at Teter were not designed to handle those changes.

"The piping valve cannot hold that much pressure, so it stays open when it needs to be closed," Patel said.

That additional moisture is what caused the mold.