Boiler Failure Causes Shift to Virtual Classes and Limited Dining Options for Students

By Shaya Silberstein

On Monday, a temporary boiler failure shut down heating in the academic buildings, prompting a shift to virtual classes for the rest of the week. Dining options like The Hub, Einstein Bros. Bagels and The Market also closed due to the heating issues.

Long line outside the Dining Hall at dinner time. (Photo by Nikko Gambino)

When asked about the timeline of when the academic buildings will be reopened, Betsy Aldredge, the assistant director of public relations at Purchase College, said, “We are currently working in conjunction with the SUNY Construction fund team to assess the situation. Once the assessment is done, we will have a better idea of the timeline for the repair and will share more information with the campus.”

The shift to virtual classes presented new challenges and revived memories of COVID-19, a reality students like Emily Magnan, a political science sophomore, are currently navigating. “Virtual classes have definitely been difficult,” Magnan said. “I really struggled the first time we did this with Covid. So it’s kind of taking me back to that, and I don’t feel like I’m able to pay attention as well. I'm not retaining the information that I normally would in the classroom. It feels like a waste of time and money at this point for us and for the professors. I am definitely excited to be back next week.”

The same challenges were also faced by the professors teaching the virtual classes. “There are a few challenges to maintaining an engaging classroom environment brought about by this unexpected pivot,” said history professor Laura Chmielewski. “For one, professors at Purchase design the fundamentals of their courses before the semester begins, and the syllabus reflects those approaches and the type of classroom community you hope to build with them. Pivoting to virtual means that one needs to rethink those fundamentals fast, and some of them simply don't yield very well to the virtual classroom environment.”

 In addition, most of us have not taught off [Microsoft] Teams: we were proficient in Zoom by the end of Covid-19, but Teams is a different product. This was an unexpected emergency to hit our campus, and we'll all try to get through it as best we can.  Though the pivot to virtual is giving many members of the Purchase community unpleasant pandemic vibes, myself included, it was also definitely the right thing to do in the moment.”

Outside near The Hub empty during the day due to closure. (Photo by Shaya Silberstein)

The Hub, Einstein Bros. Bagels and The Market also closed due to the heating being down, while Starbucks and the Dining Hall remain open.

The Dining Hall opened at an earlier time, starting at 8 a.m., and had takeout options for dinner from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Some students have not liked the limited options, such as Zak Barrera, a sophomore sociology major. “I feel like it’s been hard to just have like two options to eat. I’m getting tired of the same thing to have to eat every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s like the food options are just not that good at D-Hall; it's been inconvenient.”

Line at Starbucks during the day. (Photo by Shaya Silberstein)

Barrera also shares the same sentiment about the switch to virtual classes for the week, “I haven’t been liking online classes, I find it harder to learn and harder to be engaged when it’s online. You feel less motivated, wanting to log on for Zoom.”

On Thursday, President Michael Steiper sent out an update via email, saying, “I’m writing to share the news that the emergency boiler repairs have been progressing as planned. At this moment, we have every indication that we will be returning to normal campus operations on Monday. As the Provost shared yesterday, we will continue offering mostly remote instruction for Friday, other than the classes that have been moved to alternate spaces. Students should have already received information from their instructors about in-person activities. Thank you all for your patience during this challenging time. We will share more definitive information about Monday as soon as we are able.”

President Steiper sent another update via email, “At this time, we continue to expect to resume normal operations on Monday, February 9th. This includes in-person courses, activities, and office operations in all buildings. Please expect an email on Sunday, February 8th, confirming this. Thank you for your continued patience as we return to normal campus operations.”