When the hot water ran out in the Shapiro Residence Hall in Massell Quad, Massell Quad Senator Kendal Chapman ’22 started showering at the gym.
“Multiple people in the building filed work orders,” Chapman said. But the problem, which was brought to the Area Coordinator for Massell Quad in November, persisted until mid-March.
However, in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Chapman was happy to say that the problem had been resolved.
“DCL stuck to their word. We have had hot water for the past two weeks or so, and I have not heard any further complaints from other dorms,” said Chapman.
The fix, provided by the university facilities department, involved replacing the mixing valve—the valve that blends hot and cold water to provide safe temperatures—on the hot water heater. Facilities also found a cross connection in one of the bathrooms.
A cross connection “is when cold water is introduced to the hot water line from an open faucet,” wrote Associate Director of Operations & Maintenance Ryan Donahue to The Hoot. Facilities corrected that issue and then went through all the bathrooms and replaced the shower heads that were not operating correctly.
“Since March 5, we have not received any work requests for the lack of hot water in Shapiro Residence Hall. I sent a plumber there yesterday to make sure everything is/was OK. He reported back that the water temperature that he tested in seven different bathrooms and one kitchen was 120 degrees Fahrenheit,” wrote Donahue to The Hoot.
Chapman first discovered the issue from her own personal experience. “Everybody noticed the problem because we all had to shower in it,” she said. She received a few complaints from fellow students in and around Massell Quad earlier this semester and communicated them to the Student Union Senate in their weekly Senate meetings.
Community Advisors (CAs) also brought concerns over the hot water to the attention of the Area Coordinator, Peter Budmen, in November during their one-on-one sessions where they discuss facility related concerns, Budmen wrote in an email to The Hoot.
Following these concerns and ongoing maintenance from facilities, the hot water in Shapiro Residence Hall was shut off Jan. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., wrote Budmen, to address the plumbing concerns. However, students living in the dorms weren’t notified until after the fact, as Budmen’s email alerting residents to the outage failed to send, though Budmen wasn’t aware of this failure until 24 hours later, he wrote.
Chapman and Budmen met in February, Budmen wrote to The Hoot, and Chapman asked about possibly replacing the showerheads—a request facilities was able to complete over February break, wrote Budmen.
Facilities’ work on the issue has been ongoing, according to Budmen. “We have been working together since the time we first heard of the concerns,” he wrote to The Hoot. But the situation, at least for the past two weeks, said Chapman, has greatly improved.
