The tally of cancer cases among workers at Kansas University’s reviled Wescoe Hall has climbed a notch to six.

“We’re treating it the same way we’re treating the other five,” said Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, KU senior vice provost.

McCluskey-Fawcett said she received word from a male faculty member in the history department with cancer. She did not know the details of his illness.

This latest case will be included in a study of whether there is something about the 33-year-old building that could be causing brain tumors.

KU earlier this month called on an in-house epidemiologist, John Neuberger of the KU School of Medicine’s preventative medicine and public health department, to study the building and any potential link to reports of several brain tumors among KU faculty.

At the time, there were five reported cases of brain tumors in KU faculty who worked in the building. The oldest known case dated back about eight years.

About 400 people work in Wescoe – considered by many to be both an eyesore and a dreary, stuffy place to work.

Neuberger’s study began with air quality tests, which officials said would only take a few weeks to yield results.

“We’ve done our first round of sampling,” Neuberger said Tuesday. “We’re awaiting our results.”

KU spokesman Todd Cohen said KU had not received word yet on when the air quality test results would be in.

Many who work in the building are waiting, said Dorice Elliott, chair of the English Department.

“I don’t think fears have quieted much yet,” she said. “We’ve had some professors ask to teach in other buildings.”

McCluskey-Fawcett said she had not received any requests for moves.

“If individual faculty feel that they don’t want to be in the building, we can make accommodations for them,” she said. “If somebody really has serious concerns, we wouldn’t, obviously, force them to go into that building.”

The study, which includes environmental tests and research into those who work in the building, is expected to take seven months.