Before 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, Cobeen Hall residents had gone 6 days without hot water in their showers due to a malfunction in water heating systems.
Since last Monday, the Eastern residence hall was operating with just one of its two hot water heaters, causing students to experience cold to lukewarm water in their bathrooms.
The Cobeen Hall Instagram posted just this afternoon announcing the return of hot water.
Throughout the tenure of hot water absence, Cobeen residents were encouraged to shower at the Rec Plex or by “visiting friends in other building to utilize shower and bathroom facilities there.”
“It’s been horrible,” Riley Kolaski, sophomore in the College of Communications and Cobeen resident said. “It’s freezing, I mean it is like icicles. It will start lukewarm and then it will get freezing.”
Residence Hall Director Sophie Cieslicki sent an email to Cobeen residents Monday, March 27, notifying them that one of the hot water heaters needed replacement parts. She said that while the other heater was functioning, it is struggling to keep up with the demand of students living in the building.
Because of this, Cieslicki said that students would be able to shower, but because of the more than 360 residents in the building, it would not be able to keep the water hot for everyone.
“I am actually on my way to the Commons to shower right now,” Teagan Wede, a first-year student in the College of Business Administration and Cobeen resident said on Wednesday. “You can shower in Cobeen, but it is so cold to the point that it’s not even worth it.”
In the email Cieslicki said that as a temporary solution, facilities staff rerouted the hot water heater from the dining hall to support to residential hot water heater.
Steve Zaharias, Cobeen Chef Manager said Wednesday afternoon while the dining hall hot water heater was rerouted, the dining hall has not been negatively affected.
“Even though that happened we still have our hot water,” Zaharias said. “It doesn’t affect us the way you might think and to be honest I don’t even really know too many details of what students are going through with that.”
Just hours later, the dining hall was closed due to Cobeen dining services needing to ensure the water is directed upstairs.
Just before 10 a.m. yesterday, another email was sent to residents notifying them that the water control panels were broken, causing the cold water.
“I have been in communication with facilities this week and was notified that both residential heaters’ control panels are broken and need replacement parts,” Cieslicki said in an email.
Cieslicki also said that replacement parts were ordered on Monday and that they should arrive today or tomorrow and that the heaters should be functioning by the end of the week.
“Facilities expects to restore proper functioning of the water heaters by the end of the week,” Cieslicki said in the email.
After that email, residents received an additional email from Cieslicki with an official timeline regarding the restoration of hot water.
Per the email, the parts will arrive Thursday afternoon to JM Brennan, the water service contractor. The parts will be installed that evening.
Originally, there was no guarantee that hot water would be flowing on Thursday, but as of today, students can now shower with hot water.
The Cobeen Dining Hall is still closed until further notice.
This story was written by TJ Dysart, he can be reached at [email protected]
