Mold puts students on a boat for semester

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ST. MARY'S CITY, Md., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Mold at St. Mary's College of Maryland forced students to move onto a cruise ship docked beside the campus where they will live for the rest of the semester.

About 350 students moved from dorms to local hotels or into reconfigured rooms last week after mold was found in two dorms, The Baltimore Sun reported.

After unsuccessful attempts to clean the mold from the dorms, the college announced Tuesday that more students would be moving to the Sea Voyager, a 300-foot cruise ship.

"The river is not incidental to our campus," college President Joseph Urgo said. "So to have this problem that was caused by too much water and find a solution in the river, it was really amazing."

He said the ship, where 200 students will move this weekend and likely stay through the semester, will cost about the same as hotels and keeps underclassmen close to campus.

"It's a very St. Mary's way to handle it," said Caroline Jackson, a freshman from Ellicott City, Md. "For the president to say, 'Hey, I heard you needed a place to live, so I got you a boat' -- how much cooler can you get than that?"