The power went off in Yoder Residence Hall on Jan. 19. Though the power soon returned, the heat did not. Concern quickly mounted as students began to realize the temperatures in their rooms had drastically dropped.
“Our entire floor was freezing,” said Egypt Boyd, a sophomore film production and writing major who lives on the second floor of Yoder. “We would go outside, be freezing, and then come back inside and nothing would change. It was terrible.”The problem persisted until Tuesday night, when Chandler Buchfeller, director of Residence Life, brought the issue to the attention of Steve Shantz, systems supervisor and EMS coordinator.
When Shantz looked into the issue, it was discovered that the building’s two hot water circulating pumps had never come back on after the power outage. “It was a programming issue,” he said. “Not only did the pumps not come on, but they didn’t alert us that they weren’t on.”
A combination of subsequent issues, including the pumps running at the wrong speed and some of the rooms being automatically set to 60 degrees, further stalled the resolution of the issue. During this time, Boyd developed some health issues as a result of the temperature.
“Friday morning, I just woke up not being able to breathe,” she said. “I spent that entire day just coughing and basically throwing up … It sucked.”
Around the same time that students in Yoder were fighting through the cold, another building across campus was experiencing a similar issue.
Eduardo Alvarez-Barrera, a junior broadcasting major, was surprised to find water flooding parts of several rooms in the communication wing of the Newcomer Center.
“In the TV studio, water was across the room. It was everywhere,” he said. “I went through the water to the back room, and you could just still see, there’s buckets everywhere. Water is still falling.”
Shantz explained that the flooding was caused by a mixture of air and water that had gotten caught inside a heating coil that is kept in a storage room behind the TV studio. When the water froze, it expanded and broke the coil’s copper tubes, which then resulted in flooding when the ice eventually melted.
Luckily, the flooding did not cause much damage. Alvarez-Barrera said that several boxes of clothing merchandise got “very, very, very wet,” but that all other equipment seemed to have escaped unscathed.
“A lot of the stuff we thought was gonna end up being a goner actually is okay right now,” Alvarez-Barrera said. “I definitely want to give facilities appreciation for being quick on trying to fix things.”
Boyd also expressed appreciation for the work that was done to fix the heating issues in Yoder. However, she also stated she was frustrated by the lack of communication she felt was provided about the issue. “I think GC can always do better at actually providing appropriate answers in an appropriate way at an appropriate time.”
Shantz encouraged students to continue reporting issues they see on campus. “If it ain’t right, let us know. And if you think that it’s taking too long, let us know again.”
