A student died at The Evergreen State College in 2023. Here’s what has happened since
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- Evergreen elevated alarm responses for one year after a fatal gas leak in 2023.
- The college closed propane-heated units, added electrical upgrades and new SOPs.
- Monthly safety meetings and multilingual education now support student awareness.
Following the death of a student at The Evergreen State College in December 2023 — a death that was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning — the college asked the McLane/Black Lake Fire Department to respond to not just fire alarms but to several other kinds of alarms in an effort to enhance safety, a college official said.
They did that for an entire year, said William Ward, chief administrative officer of the four-year state college in Olympia.
“There was, like, a supervisory alarm, a trouble alarm, and an actual fire alarm,” he said. “Normally, the fire department only responds when there’s an actual fire alarm, but we elevated their response to every alarm.”
Responding to every single kind of alarm was agitating to some people, including the fire department, Ward acknowledged, but the fire district supported the college and he was grateful for their support.
“We had to make sure that everybody was in the right mindset, and that we were all working for the common goal, to make sure that safety was priority, priority number one, no matter what,” Ward said.
Although that enhanced response was only in place for a year — the fire department has resumed its typical response — the college has taken several other steps to address safety in the wake of the student’s death.
“Their safety is our top priority,” Ward said.
December 2023
Carbon monoxide poisoning killed Jonathan Rodriguez, 21, of DuPont, and caused the hospitalizations of two female students, ages 19 and 20, The Olympian previously reported. All were found the evening of Dec. 11 in an on-campus modular apartment, Unit No. 305.
A responding Evergreen police officer also was affected by what was determined to be a gas leak and the officer needed subsequent medical attention and hospitalization, according to Washington State Patrol, which was charged with investigating the incident, The Olympian reported.
The carbon monoxide leak was attributed to improper installation of air intake and exhaust venting for a new tankless water heater inside the modular apartment a week before the poisoning.
The Rodriguez family later settled with the state over their son’s death for $25 million on Aug. 30, 2024, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office said last week.
Unit No. 305 relied on propane, as did several other modular housing units, but all remain offline and the tanks have been removed, Ward said. The college has about 15 mod-style housing units, but about half of them were heated by propane and are now closed to students. The remaining units are heated by electricity, he said.
In addition to the modular-style housing, the campus also has more traditional apartment buildings and the original, older dorms, known by the letters A, B, C and D. A-dorm is one of the tallest buildings on campus at 10 floors. Around 600 students live on campus, Ward said.
Ward joined the college in 2018 to manage facilities and plan space for the main campus, but after the death of the student, the maintenance portion of residential housing was added to his list of responsibilities.
Some of the improvements to housing happened as the college came out of the pandemic, enrollment grew and Evergreen needed to reopen housing that had sat unused, he said. More than $10 million was invested or is being invested in the college’s A-D dorms.
But there were other steps, including the college’s Board of Trustees authorizing about $1 million in spending on the death investigation, but also improvements to housing, including electrical upgrades across student housing, Ward said.
“I walked through probably about 900 units personally, and went through and tested all the electrical circuits, all the systems that were in housing, and just verified that there were no immediate safety issues or anything from that standpoint,” he said. “But that was one of the things that we identified that we needed to address, and the board supported that, and like I said, we’ve done a considerable job of being able to complete that (electrical) work, and we are scheduled to complete the rest of that this summer.”
Other changes implemented by the college:
▪ The college reviewed the policies and standard operating procedures in place for student housing. “We went through meticulously, through all their SOPs and their training,” Ward said.
▪ The college previously worked with one fire inspection business for 20 years — the kind of business that provides fire safety systems — but they decided to review that contract and later put it out for bid and hired a new fire services business called Guardian, he said.
▪ The college determined it had a language barrier when it came to some students operating kitchen appliances, so the college rolled out information in multiple languages about operating instructions and dos and dont’s. “We’ve actually seen a major decline in mishaps,” Ward said.
▪ The college had the professional residential and dining maintenance workers enroll in safety training through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, also known as OSHA-10.
▪ The college has trimmed trees and improved lighting for better campus safety, including at the F parking lot, which is near student housing.
▪ The back of every student housing door has updated emergency procedures and evacuation routes.
Immediately after the tragedy, a number of students also rushed out and bought carbon monoxide alarms, but most of student housing has central heating.
“There is no possibility of carbon monoxide build up in the other areas,” Ward said. “So we were very thoughtful and caring about that, and we provided more education to all the students to bring down their sense of concern.”
What do students think?
The Olympian also got a chance to talk to students about campus safety.
Evergreen senior Emma Pinnow said she feels safer.
“I do, because as soon as (the student death) happened, there was residential staff coming to our apartments to check in on things and upgrade things,” she said. “And usually, whenever I report there’s something wrong, someone will come in and check on stuff.
“And I noticed that, honestly, the college has put a lot of effort into just making sure everything in the apartments is up to date,” she added.
Pinnow said she knows what to do and where to go in a major emergency. They also have quarterly fire drills and when there is a fire, like a stove top fire, the fire department shows up, they evacuate the building, the building is checked and then they can go back inside.
Lynn Dykstra is a freshman at Evergreen.
“I mean, I definitely heard about it (the student death), and it was definitely like something to keep in mind,” she said. “But everyone here has been super open about talking about safety and upgrades they’ve made and things to be aware of.”
But sophomore Faith Wright said the college could be doing more. She knows what to do in an emergency, but she’s not sure about her peers.
“I know what to do,” she said. “I’m from the South, so I have emergency plans put in place just because of natural disasters. ... I know where to go and what to do. I know to get to higher ground. I have my emergency backpack under my bed, prepped and ready. My roommates don’t. Most of my friends don’t. They don’t really know what to do in an emergency situation.”
Students are offered emergency training, but it’s not required, she said. She wishes it was required.
“Especially CPR training, fire training, stuff like that,” she said.
Ward wanted to make clear that everyone is now on the same page.
“We have monthly safety meetings with our fire department and other emergency response personnel, and our residential and dining staff is involved with that as well, too,” he said. “So that’s another upgrade that we’ve done. So not only internal stakeholders, but external stakeholders, just to make sure that everybody’s communicating together and helping and supporting each other.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "A student died at The Evergreen State College in 2023. Here’s what has happened since."
