Residents of MacDonald House in Helser Hall will have to live in temporary housing longer than expected.

The residents were relocated from their floor last week after droplets of mercury were discovered on the bathroom floor. The residents, about 50 male students, stayed at various places around campus, including other residence halls and the hotel in the Memorial Union.

The floor was originally scheduled to be reopened last Sunday. Randy Alexander, director of the Department of Residence, said the students now may not be able to return to their rooms until Nov. 8.

“It could be much sooner,” Alexander said. “[We need to get] the mercury level down to zero.”

Alexander said the instruments used by the Department of Health and Safety to detect the mercury indicate that the levels are low enough, but samples were sent to a lab to conduct tests that are more accurate.

Alexander said MacDonald House residents could possibly move back to their rooms by the end of the week, but it depends on when the testing samples are approved.

“We hope to get [the students] in as soon as possible,” he said.

Residents said the move has been inconvenient, but most feel the Department of Residence has treated them fairly.

Justin Glaesemann, freshman in pre-aerospace engineering, said the department has done all it can, but he said the moves have been a nuisance.

“I just got moved from one place to another,” Glaesemann said. “And I’ll have to move two weeks later.”

Matthew Dunker, junior in mechanical engineering, said some of the residents have had problems moving in the middle of the week as opposed to moving on a weekend.

“Obviously, I’m unhappy with having to move out,” he said. “But there’s no way you can have this happen and have everyone happy.”

Dunker’s only concern was whether the residents would be reimbursed for clothing and other possessions that needed to be thrown out.

Alexander said students should look into homeowners’ insurance if they want these type of possessions replaced.

Although the contamination is not a result of negligence on the part of the university, Alexander said workers are currently replacing some of the residents’ personal property.

Dunker said the responsibility of rectifying the situation should fall on the person who dumped the mercury down the drain.

Officials still have no leads in finding who is responsible for the mercury contamination. However, the Department of Public Safety log reported that maintenance personnel had found several broken glass thermometers outside a dumpster near Helser Hall Friday.

The workers confiscated some of the thermometers in order to test them for the contamination.

Loras Jaeger, director of DPS, said there would need to be considerably more broken thermometers to cause such a substantial level of mercury contamination.

“There would have to be literally thousands of thermometers,” Jaeger said, and he added he was not even sure if the thermometers that were found contained mercury.

Alexander said about half of the MacDonald residents have been questioned.