Heating Issues Leave Caldwell Residents in the Cold
Image Courtesy of Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
The recent extreme cold snap that left the DMV frozen in January led to heating issues in the residential portion of CUA’s Caldwell Hall, according to multiple students who live there.
Temperatures in the District plunged for several nights in early and mid January. According to National Weather Service records, it was over seventeen degrees below the average low temperature for January. Students living in Caldwell Hall, after realizing that the building’s heating system was not up to the task, were forced to take unusual measures.
Senior classics major Max White told us that he believes, rather than failing entirely, his radiator was simply unable to effectively warm his room. “Whatever the cause, it certainly made the dorms here miserable the last few weeks,” White said. “You had to wear multiple layers just to be comfortable, so I avoided spending much time in my room.“
White added that this is his first year living in Caldwell and that he has never experienced something like this before.
Nicholas Michalczyk, a senior physics major and philosophy minor, also lives in Caldwell, and said that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened in the building, which is shared by students, Campus Ministry, and the School of Theology and Religious Studies.
“I was obliged to sleep under three blankets, wearing a sweatshirt and even a hat,” said Michalczyk. He said he filed a request with Facilities Planning and Management, which was rejected. However, a technician did come to his room.
“By that time, I had acquired a space heater I found in one of the laundry rooms. Though I was convinced that my room’s radiator was less hot than other radiators in the building, the Facilities worker told me it was working fine. He also advised me to return the space heater, which I did.”
Michalczyk later contacted his Community Director, who had the window air conditioner taken out of his room, which Facilities personnel blamed for the cold. He was later given two space heaters.
“Perhaps they were simply unaware there was any real issue at the time,” Michalczyk said. “I don’t know. But it was frustrating that Facilities wouldn’t acknowledge there was a problem, even though multiple residents were complaining about it.”
He added that he hasn’t had heating problems at CUA before, although he did experience an air conditioning outage two years ago while temperatures outside were over ninety degrees.
Thomas J. Striegel, Senior Director for Planning and Design Management and Associate University Architect, provided a statement from Facilities Management and Operations (FMO), which said that FMO responded to calls for heating issues in Caldwell and made adjustments to the system, sealed windows, removed window AC units, and provided space heaters in order to heat the rooms to sixty-eight degrees, the target temperature according to University guidelines.
The statement also said, “January was an exceptionally cold month, with temperatures dropping below twenty degrees for days. This also was the first very cold month since Garvey Hall and the Conway School of Nursing buildings were added to our campus central heating and cooling plant. The additional heating demand affects existing buildings that share the same supply of heating hot water. This contributes to an imbalance in the campus heating loop. We are in the process of balancing the loop, which will take place over a period of time and in accordance with available resources.”
