Why does Barnard want me to be dehydrated? Is it part of some master plan? Do they simply not care that more and more water bottle stations are deteriorating each day?

On more than one occasion, I have been wandering around each floor of a building, looking desperately for some source of water. Sadly for me (a Barnard student), this seems to be more common at Barnard than at Columbia. When first moving into my dorm in the Barnard Quad, I was excited to find that my room was almost directly across from a water bottle filler. To my dismay, however, this filler had an orange filter status and the water came out at BARELY a trickle. 

During my battle against the frat flu, one night, I woke up DESPERATELY thirsty at 3 am and wandered from floor to floor looking for sustenance. My own floor’s water was out of the question, but after walking up and down the stairs for what felt like hours, I gave up. Many floors had an orange filter status, one barely had any water coming out, and one had no water bottle filler whatsoever. 

Another issue is that it seems like as soon as I find a reliable source of water, that one’s light eventually becomes orange as well. For the first month and a half of school, the Brooks lobby water bottle filler was my absolute go-to. This water was cold, it was clean, it was refreshing. However, one day, I went to fill up my water bottle and lo and behold, my perfect water bottle filler’s filter had turned to orange. This was devastating to me, and I’m sure many Quad residents feel the same. 

I don’t know exactly what the different colors at the top of the station mean and what makes it change from green to orange, but I swear I can taste the difference. Maybe it’s just the fact that I know something is wrong that changes how I taste it, but I can’t drink it. One horrifying time in Milbank, I stumbled upon a RED filter status for the first time. This was truly alarming because obviously green means good water, orange means so-so water, and red means awful, terrible, poisonous water (at least this is how I see it).

I also wish Barnard was more proactive about fixing/replacing these water filters. It’s frustrating that signs like the one below are posted all over the place when, in reality, most of the water bottle filling stations on the poster are not actually functioning as normal. It’s also sad because it definitely makes me and others I know more prone to using plastic water bottles, which, ideally, I would like to keep to a minimum. 

Because of all this, I have caved and recently bought a Brita filter to fight off the impending dehydration, but I am still adamant that I shouldn’t have to! We deserve functioning water bottle fillers!

Header Image via Bwarchives

Water Bottle Filling Station poster via Talia Benson