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Unhelpful renovations keep East windows closed

It is said that when a door closes, a window opens. Unless you live in East. Due to renovations made over the summer, a large number of the windows in East dorms can no longer be opened by the students living there.

Moving into my Hassenfeld residence hall a few weeks ago, I was shocked to discover that even though my room had a wide window overlooking the quad, it could not be opened. The window spans the entire wall, but it is not possible to open any part of it. The only option to circulate outside air into the room is through a lower pseudo-window, a panel below the real window that swings forward a few inches to reveal an old screen. I say panel because it is not actually glass, so you can’t see through it, but it has a screen behind it.

The East windows were “renovated” over the summer because there have been problems in the past with screens falling out of windows. But instead of installing better screens, the windows were just replaced without screens at al so that this issue would never occur again.

The first problem is that these lower screened panels barely open and let any air into the room. They swing open horizontally, already a poor angle for circulation because the air just hits the inside of the opened panel. And, at least in the singles, they cannot open far before hitting a desk or headboard.

The new windows have made living in East almost unbearable for these first few, very warm weeks. With temperatures reaching upwards of 90 degrees outside, it is even hotter inside residence halls. In small rooms with the doors closed all day, the heat is trapped inside and makes the dorms feel like a sauna. And since the windows do not open, there is little chance to let air into the room to help cool it off, as the screened panels provide minimal circulation. Fans are helpful but oftentimes they simply blow around the same stuffy air.

It is a terrible feeling to want to purposely stay out somewhere on campus later than you’d prefer because you dread the thought of going back to an overheated room. After a long day, a dorm should be a place to relax and feel comfortable. But when putting the fan on the highest setting and drinking cold water still leave you sweating while just sitting in a desk chair, there is little motivation to spend any unnecessary time in your room. On especially hot nights, even sleeping in a dorm room is stifling.

It seems that DCL now has other priorities for East dorms. All East residents recently received an email from the Department of Community Living that bathroom signs throughout the quad are being moved and/or stolen, and that while all the signs are being replaced now, students will be charged for the damages if the problem continues. While this is an important issue, it is frustrating that students were immediately threatened to be billed for moving bathroom signs when our safety was not wholly considered in the window renovations.

In terms of student safety, preventing the windows from opening is not an improvement. Perhaps in the winter, the new windows will prevent cold drafts, keeping rooms warm and heating costs lower. But in the hot summer weather, a lack of window screens in easily-overheated rooms is an unsafe measure for students. The best-case scenario would, of course, be air conditioning. This is unlikely perhaps due to high expenses or the age of the building. So if the next best option is opening a window to cool off a room, all dorms should have functioning windows.

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