In response to the recent problems with Harrison College House's water system, College Houses and Academic Services organized a meeting with the high rise's residents last night to explain the situation and apologize.
Campus Maintenance Services and Facilities Services Director Mike Coleman explained the causes behind both the water shutoff and flood to a group of about 30 residents.
Residents were glad to be able to voice their concerns.
"It helps to understand how the system works," Engineering senior Joyce Tam said. "I came down here to hear what they had to say."
She added that she was disappointed by what she considered to be a low turnout.
"Not enough people showed up for me to get the full impact, considering all the complaints that came up," Tam said. "Maybe others didn't come because they figured the problems would be solved."
Though not completely fixed, the water system underwent some repairs recently and is getting back on track, according to officials.
"The water problem has two sides -- the steam side and the water side," Coleman said. "The two events are not connected, but it's the same system."
The "steam side" of the repairs required a shutdown to install isolation valves.
"It was always intended to be a complete shutdown -- but communications failed between us, and to you," Coleman said to the students.
Because of its age, Harrison is not equipped with an isolation system -- it is not possible to work on only one section of the building, so everything must be shut down to make repairs.
The "water side" of the issue erupted when a pipe leaked Saturday night, causing a flood on the 23rd floor.
The absence of an isolation system caused the leak's repairs to make hot water unavailable to residents on Sunday.
Officials said the situation was worsened by "an unfortunate confluence of events," CHAS spokeswoman Sue Smith said.
Along with the shutoff and the leak, the maintenance phone broke down, further complicating the situation.
Officials also spoke about the importance of contacting the information center and the house's staff on duty in situations like these. This way, they said, the issues could be reported and addressed as quickly as possible.
"People can get some personal attention and not let the issue languish," CHAS Director Leslie Delauter said.
With regard to the recent string of malfunctions, Delauter apologized for the inconveniences residents had to face.
"Some things are mechanical, ... but we're really sorry you had to go through this," she said. "We want to stress we're really working on more efficient protocols."
She then proposed that maintenance personnel send out e-mails to the house explaining the problem as soon as it is known, or even before that, if necessary.
"We just want to know that someone has gotten the message and [that] they're working on it," Delauter said.
Coleman explained that the three high rises have been granted a collective $80 million budget for revamp projects -- resulting in Hamilton's new look and future plans for Harrison and Harnwell. The sum, however, is not sufficient to accomplish renovations for all aspects of each building.
"It's not that we're not sympathetic, but there are things we can't do," he said.
Residents took advantage of the meeting to bring forth other maintenance problems -- from power shortages to unsatisfactory response time to calls.
Coleman said the maintenance system is undergoing some renovations to ameliorate itself and prepare for this summer's maintenance projects, but this process will take some time.
"We hope to do it without you knowing about it," Coleman said. "But we need this kind of feedback."
House Dean Frank Pellicone said he was "quite pleased" with the meeting.
"It's an ongoing issue, and there is a good team of people," Pellicone said. "Things are continuing to get better."
