Some students in Harrison College House have recently experienced significant flooding in their rooms, and all residents have experienced numerous water and heat shutdowns. Facilities and Real Estate Services officials have attributed the problems to increasingly cold temperatures and the building's age, despite the $26.5 million in renovations completed on the building this summer.
Water was shut down twice in the college house this week and another repair is scheduled to take place today.
On Sunday, College sophomore Suma Chennubhotla and Nursing sophomore Carolyn Weiss discovered substantial flooding in their ninth-floor room.
"I walked into my room, and our entire floor up to our beds was soaking wet," Chennubhotla said. "We were afraid of using the computers, [and] we had to move everything off of our floor and use the common room and hallway. ... There's nothing else we [could] do."
Maintenance workers quickly discovered that the leak was caused by a breakdown in one of the building's plumbing risers, which ran through the walls of Chennubhotla and Weiss' dorm.
"We could hear the water leaking, and so [Facilities] had to turn off the heat and the water," along with ripping down the affected wall, Chennubhotla said.
"There's no more leaking, [but] ... now we have a huge hole in the wall," said Engineering sophomore Hilary Harris, who shares her apartment with Weiss and Chennubhotla.
Additional problems with the building's boiler also contributed to shutdowns on Sunday, and both hot and cold water were turned off from approximately 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday as a result of maintenance.
Though Facilities Services fixed the leak in Chennubhotla and Weiss' dorm, "it smells terrible and I think there's mold in there," Chennubhotla said.
Locust Area Facilities Services Director Betsy Robinson said that the shutdowns are necessary to repair problems that have arisen due to the building's age.
The break that caused the flooding may have been a result of the constant expanding and contracting of pipes due to temperature fluxations, Robinson said.
Ongoing work on the building is now focused on preventing such pipe movements from becoming problematic.
Employees are working "to repair the risers in addition to replacing six or seven valves ... that aren't holding underneath sinks or in toilets," Robinson said, referencing devices that help to keep plumbing working smoothly in the high rises.
Though most students were able to avoid using water when it was unavailable, some continue to be annoyed by the recurring shutdowns.
"It would be good if they could fix the problem once and for all," Engineering sophomore Peter Hornyack said.
Others found the shutdowns to be more inconvenient.
"The other day I wanted to take a shower and there was no hot water ... [so] that was really annoying -- I actually had to resort to taking a shower somewhere else," College sophomore Suzanne Baidon said.
