As colder temperatures ushered in the week, some students were forced to pull out coats, hats, gloves and scarves in order to keep warm -- while inside their dormitories.
With heat not scheduled to be turned on in most on-campus housing until around Oct. 8, students in Hamilton Village have voiced concerns over current living situations -- from the inability to recuperate from illness, the necessity of purchasing portable heaters and even the death of a pet.
"It's frigid, an arctic tundra," College and Wharton senior Patrick Brett said, describing his Harnwell College House abode. "We literally sleep at night with our winter coats on, gloves and a hat."
Since the heating and air conditioning units in the high rises are two-pipe systems, they can only provide either heat or air conditioning at a given time, but not both. The University traditionally waits until Oct. 15 to make the switch, not being able to revert back to air conditioning until the spring.
But an outpouring of student complaints has caused administrators to rethink this decision, and e-mails from house staff members have said that as of Oct. 8, the high rises will have heat.
According to Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik, the first weeks of October are typically tough to service temperature-wise.
"This period is called the shoulder season when the temperature swings back and forth quite a bit," he said. "You can never satisfy everyone because you can't predict what the weather will be."
Roughly a dozen other Penn administrators from campus maintenance and residential services did not return repeated phone calls for comment yesterday.
Blaik said that administrators want to be careful before shutting off the air conditioning, for fear that temperatures may rise once again -- something that happened last year.
But he said that his office will look into expediting the process of turning on the heat.
"We do want to respond quickly to any complaints," he said, later adding that, "Maybe worrying about rooms being cold is more important than rooms being hot."
Students say that Penn's response to inadequate heat is not good enough.
Wharton senior Tambu Munhutu said that the lack of heat in her room has caused her "normal winter cold" to get steadily worse.
"We were freezing in here... and I was just getting sicker and sicker," she said.
"I woke up and I was too sick to even move," she added.
Brett said that his complaints to building personnel were not adequately handled.
"We were trying to ask our building supervisor about the problem and the only response we got was an e-greeting card" sent to all residents of Harnwell College House, he said.
While no requirements concerning a standard for heat were found for on-campus housing, the University's housing requirements for off-campus living state that rooms must be kept at a minimum of 68 degrees from Oct. 1 through April 30.
Students, who say the temperatures in their rooms fell into the 50s at night, wondered why University housing isn't held to the same standard.
To make matters worse, Brett claimed that his goldfish froze to death on Monday.
This week's frigid temperatures have caused some students to reach into their own pockets to purchase portable heating devices.
Wharton senior Tjashana Browne bought a $40 desktop heater from the Penn Bookstore this weekend because the cold was too much for her. She said that following her purchase there was only one heater remaining.
Browne said her Harnwell roommates have experimented with less expensive ways to warm up.
"You can't stay in your bedroom so you have to go into the common room and turn on the oven to heat up the room a bit," she said.
Other students say that the cold has prevented them from getting sleep at night.
"Basically, the thing is that during the day there is no way to survive without wearing a sweater or something and at night I keep waking up because it's so cold," College and Wharton junior Alexander Kristofcak said.
And some students just want their University housing to match the standard of living to which they are accustomed.
"I'm just shocked," Munhutu said. "Heat is necessary, it's not a luxury."
