2008 Woodie Awards
Dorm 'settling' leaves students in cold water
By: Alexandra Smith
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: News
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David Stone, interim director of facility planning and management, said the reason for a lack of hot water in the dorms was difficult to locate. Originally, it was thought to be impacting only individual suites. As student complaints became more widespread, maintenance started looking system-wide for the problem.
"We started receiving complaints two weeks ago, and they were very sporadic," Stone said. "As people started talking, it kind of exploded. First it was one or two complaints, then five, then 100."
Stone said the water temperature difficulties were the result of calcium building up faster than expected on the hot water valve. Because of the buildup, the valve was not opening and allowing enough hot water into the system.
"Our room didn't have hot water for three weeks," said Leah Bend, a freshman interactive visual media major. "I think we were one of the first rooms to lose it."
Stone said the facilities staff will now clean the calcium on the water valve every three months to try to prevent similar difficulties in the future. Engineers also are going to look at the possibility of putting a water-softening system on the hot water to eliminate buildup.
The water temperature inconvenience is the largest in a string of maintenance issues with the residence halls, which opened fall 2006.
"When you build something new, the buildings settle," Buck said. "When they do, things sort of shift. You can't prevent that."
Stone said there was at least one instance where shower fixtures in the building leaked.
"It would be nice to think that construction is perfect, but we've had a couple fixtures that leaked," he said. "It's not unusual during the first year of a building."
Issues with any material, labor or aspects of construction that do not work correctly are covered under a year-long warranty on general construction of the building, Stone said.
Students said the frustrations with water have not been the only ones they've experienced.
"Work orders take months to get filled, if at all," said Katie Bland, a freshman musical theater major.
Buck said the facilities staff recognizes the student living areas as a high-level priority. He said work orders are filled based on the nature of the student complaint and the other types of issues facilities needs to take care of.
Bend said she is still waiting for maintenance to fill a work order for her smoke detector, which has been broken and detached since before Thanksgiving.
Thin walls have also been a source of student complaints.
"The walls are paper thin," Bland said. "If my neighbors are merely having an excited conversation while I'm tying to sleep, I can hear everything. The walls are simply too thin and privacy is lost."
Buck said he understands the complaint, but does not know of a way to remedy it.
"Every residence hall on the planet does not have walls that are thick enough," Buck said. "I don't minimize it, but it will always be an issue for residence halls everywhere."
Buck said the largest complaint in the new dorms has been over the new method of receiving television content via the computer. Charter Communications delivers content in collaboration with a vendor called Video Furnace which interfaces and distributes content to individual places. Buck said the process does not work with certain model Dell computers.
"That's the one feature of these new buildings that has been most frustrating for students," Buck said.
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