It's Hard to Study Without Heat: The Complaints Of One Student

This past weekend was plenty of fun. We had the traditional burning of theŠ what was it this year? A "W?" We had the Homecoming football game, in which I hear we beat Wesleyan. (GO TEAM!) The parties this weekend were finally something more than face-painting, karaoke or inflatable obstacle courses. On the whole, I found my faith in the ability of Trinity College to throw a party on the rise.

And then I went back to my room.
And the heat was out.
And I shivered while trying to get some sleep.
All of this for the umpteenth time this semester.

Now, I don't want to go off on a rant here, but when nearly two thousand young adults and their guardians open their wallets for not only a fine education, but a safe and humane environment, they don't expect the many interruptions in vital services that we've experienced around campus so far this year. For example, due to the construction on the Mather quad, the dormitories of south campus lost their access to warm water for nearly two days. This was an announced outage, however, and we'll disregard the fact that the estimate on the restoration of service was only half of the actual. Later, when the Elton main broke, south campus was without water at all for quite some time, while the basement of Austin Arts Center flooded. Also, while "Old Man Winter" paid us an early visit in mid-October, the heat all over campus was late in coming. It wasn't until later that month that heat service was engaged campus-wide, and since then there have been at least two outages (three in Jackson Hall). Finally, there has been at least one power outage this semester, the one I am referring to lasting two hours and occurring at around four o'clock in the morning. This caused people's alarm clocks to malfunction, computers to shutdown dangerously, and like all of the above mentioned incidents, brought general confusion to the campus.

I'm not trying to belittle the job that Buildings & Grounds does on this campus. Their janitorial staff has to put up with the mornings-after here at Trinity, where students turn our halls into what appears to be a war zone. Pool tables are destroyed, water fountains ripped out of walls, and trash cans filled to overflowing with the refuse of parties and drinking. My hat goes off to those who rise before most of us students, coming to Trinity to painstakingly restore our living space to cleanliness and order. Yes, that's right, fellow students. B&G doesn't just wave a magic wand over night and make your trash in the halls, bathrooms, and foliage disappear; people do that. Hard-working ones.

However, in terms of maintenance, preventative or otherwise, of the vital services (heat, water, power,) there seems to be a deficiency in service. I appeal to the Department of Buildings & Grounds, and to the Administration: it is challenging enough to conquer the academic rigors of college even with the comforts of a warm dorm room, running water, and light to read by. If there is something that can be done to prevent these outages and restore the environment in which we're living for four years, let's do it.