Drafty dorms leave some students frigid

By: Andy Silva

Posted: 1/27/03

Nicole Mitchell opened the door to her room in Buckley and was met by a stream of cold air. She is not alone, as a number of students have placed calls to their complex offices and to the Department of Residential Life regarding a lack of heat in their rooms.

"This whole semester had been an inconvenience because the heat isn't working," said Mitchell, a 6th-semester psychology major. "It's upsetting that I have to pay all this tuition and I have to sit in my room with four layers of clothing on."

The DRL sent an e-mail to students explaining what steps have been taken to alleviate the problem and made suggestions to students as to what they can do to help the situation.

University spokesman Richard Veilleux said heating problems after break occurred, but the cold weather has played a large role.

"I would think that there would be similar problems, but not to this extent due to the extreme temperatures," Veilleux said.

Due to the cold temperatures heating the building has become more of a concern than past years, Mary Anne Ives, the director of South Complex said.

"The students are contributing to the problem as well, because they are propping doors and bringing in 10 degree weather, which prevents us from reaching temperatures we want to reach," Veilleux said.

The e-mail stated the unusually cold weather has helped play a factor in the heating problem, along with other factors, such as the way students changed their heating conditions before they left.

"One of the problems that we experienced is when they left, they turned the heat off instead of turning it down, which led to condensation in the radiator," Veilleux said. "The condensation builds up in the radiator and the workers had to drain any radiator that had that."

Veilleux and Ives said calls had been coming in steadily, but in some cases the problem was not related to heating problems.

"In a lot of situations we've been able to fix windows that are drafty or fix a knob that is stuck," Ives said.

According to Veilleux, crews from both Residential Life and Facilities have been working overtime to help alleviate the problem.

"Certainly it's no fun being cold," Veilleux said. "Reslife and Facilities staff have been working extra hours to get these things fixed."

Ives stressed the importance of the heating problem.

"It is a priority for us," Ives said. "That's what we're focusing on. It's a strain, but we're managing fine."

Veilleux said the number of calls has been decreasing and things are beginning to get back to normal.

"The number of calls is down to a trickle," Veilleux said. "We hope that they are settling down."