Building Closure Updates

The  information below is based on GESTA’s understanding of recent events as of this date. Since management has put very little information in writing, some of this information also comes directly from employees who have been personally  involved in the building closures or who have received verbal information from management. We acknowledge the disruption or loss of these facilities represent decades of our colleagues’ work and may carry deep personal and institutional impacts. The brevity of these updates is  not meant to reflect the depth of the impacts. We are also aware indirectly of impacts to multiple laboratories and buildings not mentioned here. If you have a (non-controlled) status update or information you would like to provide GESTA regarding the closures or moves of a building or lab for a future bulletin, please feel free to send it to our tipline email or share it via our Survey on this topic.

Building 21 Library
Currently management has  stated that all in person library services at GSFC are paused as of December 9th, while library staff complete a 60-day review of the collection. As of December 9th employees are no longer allowed to check out books from the library. Collaborative spaces are listed to remain open but close on January 2nd. Associate Center Director, Ray Rubilotta stated in a meeting with Code 600 on December 10th that the physical library will be closed, though some version of the library’s Collaboration Center will be moved to Building 28, Ask a Librarian will remain and some digital subscriptions will remain, but those subscriptions will be more limited.

The closure of the GSFC library is in direct violation of a 2012 Negotiated  Settlement Agreement between GESTA and NASA Goddard. This agreement is available to read on our website Librarynegosettlementagree04oct2012.pdf. Library staff have reportedly been given permission (after requests by library staff) to go through the collection and save the most rare 10-15%. The other 85-90% is going to be picked up by the General Services Administration. The former NASA HQ library is also in our stacks since that collection was cataloged and brought to the Greenbelt Goddard library. 

Building 97 Fitness Center 
Mr. Rubilotta informed paying members of the fitness center in a brief (less than 15 minutes) in-person meeting held on November 25th, that GSFC will be closing the fitness center on December 31st. He did not invite questions at the end, but accepted some when prompted. He stated that headquarters was not involved in this decision and this was an economic decision after looking at alternative options. He also announced the Wallops fitness center will be closed. Members who already paid fees beyond January 1st will be refunded.  In addition, management and GEWA has emailed fitness center members this link (https://nasa.sharepoint.com/sites/GSFC/SitePages/Special-Events.aspx - internal) of local gyms including those offering promotions and discounts to Goddard employees. A table of shower locations on campus has also been provided by management.

Building 11 Propulsion Labs
On November 5, management notified employees that the center had made a commitment to vacate the area by November 12th. This equated to 4 business days’ notice, with a weekend and Veteran’s Day in between. On November 12th, movers arrived early and started moving equipment before any responsible engineers or technicians were present, and damaged a piece of non-critical equipment. Management had designated two destination spaces for the hardware to be split between; one of those destinations is still not ready for use as of December 15th, so some of the hardware is staged in temporary areas. Within days after the move out, employees’ card access to these labs was removed, including employees who worked in other labs in the area that were not emptied on November 12th.

Building 19 and 20 - All Labs and Offices
Employees were recalled from furlough in October to move labs and offices out of buildings 19 and 20. Threats were made that if people didn’t assist with these moves, lab equipment not labeled would be excessed and personal belongings would be packed by others. You can read more about the labs impacted in our briefing linked below.

More Information in GESTA/IFPTE Issue Brief
IFPTE and GESTA released a briefing on the status of GSFC building closures on November 14th and our continuing concerns at that time, including more details of some of the missions and capabilities impacted. The full brief is publicly available here.