This is a cry for help.

This week in New York was forecasted to be colder than Alaska, and the heaters in many of the rooms all across The Quad have been unreliable, to say the least. In Reid, my heater has remained utterly out of service after working for a day or two around mid-November. In other words, it’s fucking cold. And as if that isn’t bad enough, both ResLife and Facilities have been deeply disappointing—insulting, even.

On Sunday, I received a concerning text from one of my friends on my floor, who had just got back to her dorm after Thanksgiving break: “I’m freezing my ass off.” Right off the bat, I knew I would have to suffer the same conditions when I returned to my dorm. (My roommate later confirmed my suspicions with her own chain of concerning messages, including, “I CAN’T EVEN STAND BAREFOOT ON THE FLOOR.”)

On Monday, my friend told me about the outrageous experience she had with Facilities while I was gone. The story goes that she first went to ResLife to let them know of the horrific state of our rooms, only to be brushed off and directed to inform Facilities. Luckily, given that she had put in a work order quite a while ago, she heard the much-awaited, loud knock on her door later that day. But, please, take a guess as to what happened next.

Did Facilities…

A) Explain the cause of the problem

B) Discuss possible solutions

C) Fix the heaters right then and there

D) Wave a thermometer in the air (mind you, an ORAL thermometer) and point to saying, “It’s 70 degrees. It’s not cold in here.”

The correct answer is D! Flabbergasting, I know! 

On Tuesday, my roommate caught another Facilities guy in the hallway and asked him to check out the heater in our room. The first thing he said when he walked in was, “Oh God, it’s cold in here.” And he repeated himself a few times, too! We know, my brother, we know. It’s fucking cold.

As I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon, we have had hardly any substantial updates. We only know that Facilities will return one day to fix our heater, but we don’t know when. I’ve also heard that this is supposedly a building-wide issue, not a room-by-room one. I honestly don’t care anymore. I just need warmth ASAP.

To conclude, I’ll share a list of complaints I have compiled over the past week. Enjoy!

  • The floor is so cold I literally have to hop, skip, and jump across my room when I’m barefoot (just as my roommate had warned).
  • I double layered my socks at night and nestled into not one, not two, but THREE blankets, and I could still feel the wind from the CLOSED window blowing at my feet. 
    • Bonus complaint: my roommate would make fun of me for wearing socks to bed when I’m cold, but the conditions lately have been so dire that she has had to swallow her pride and do the same to survive. 
  • Yeah, even though it is very much CLOSED, the window cannot keep out the vicious gusts. There is little to no difference between the outside and inside temperature at this point.
  • Literally, as I’m typing this, my fingers are getting stiff. I have to take little breaks between writing to warm up my fingers, or it feels like they might actually fall off. 
  • When I hover my hand over the worthless heater, I feel slight (and I mean SLIGHT) warmth, which gives me hope that it might be on and could offer the room some heat eventually—but no! It never does.
  • I also love to drink cold water, so I usually keep a lot of water bottles in the fridge—I haven’t reached for those this week! It’s fucking cold enough as it is.
    • Oh! Another bonus: the water bottles outside the fridge have all turned cold just by sitting in this god-forsaken room. I am living in a fridge.

Reid Window via Bwarchives