Residents in The Olde Forced to Relocate Ahead of Storm

By Tia Porter

When students returned to The Olde after winter break, many were shocked to find that both the heating and the water in their apartments weren’t working. The heat had been out since students came back to campus on Tuesday, and the water went out on Thursday, after classes began. 

“I haven’t showered for two days,” said Diego Vivar, a senior majoring in graphic design. “There is a snowstorm coming in, and we don’t have no heat.” 

Vivar was one of many students who didn’t have access to heating or hot water. For those experiencing problems, temporary space heaters were offered, which students could pick up from their resident assistant (RA).  

“The Olde is in pretty bad shape,” said Micheal Portanova, a senior majoring in graphic design. “We have been without heat since we moved in. And without water in our showers for a few days, and the hot water is off. All we have is cold water, but it’s blisteringly cold. It took us a while to get space heaters, too. They told us they were out, so we had to call a lot of people just to get one, and then miraculously a bunch more appeared.” 

One of the space heaters offered to students in The Olde. (Photo by Nolan Locke)

While Facilities sent out emails offering updates on the situation, a clear reason for the outage was not given. Moreover, this isn’t the first time residents have reported problems with their apartments in The Olde and failed to get a clear response. 

“Purchase is very inconsistent with things,” Vivar said. “There have been circumstances where we have reported problems and it’s taken them longer to check it out.” 

Back in September, Vivar and his suitemates in The Olde filed several work orders, including one for the stairs to their apartment. However, it wasn’t until part of the stairs collapsed that someone was sent to fix the problem. 

“I spend so much money to live in an apartment here at The Olde,” Vivar said, “and it’s ridiculous because my previous semester, we reported the stairs problem, and they ignored it until one of my suitemates fell through the stairs. There’s also a leak on our roof that hasn’t gotten fixed. We reported it since, like, since move-in day. We had some people from facilities come check it out. They looked at it, they said ‘Yup, that’s a roof problem,’ then left. We haven’t gotten an update since.” 

Buckets set up by Vivar and his suitemates beneath the leak in their ceiling. (Photo by Nolan Locke)

Residents in The Olde who were experiencing heating or water outages were told to leave their apartments Friday afternoon. With only a few hours' notice, they were given rooms in Crossroads to stay in temporarily. However, with most of the dorms already filled to capacity, the only options were rooms on the east side of Crossroads, which are run down and normally left vacant each semester. Students who moved into these rooms found lamps without lightbulbs, wrapped up furniture, paint buckets and dirty showers. 

Grim-filled shower in Crossroads. (Photo by Nolan Locke)

These students were offered free meals at D-Hall until they could move back into The Olde. 

Elizabeth Elvira, assistant director at the multicultural center, and Johnathan Odea, the resident coordinator at Farside, were on standby to offer aid to students moving into Crossroads. Although there was uncertainty regarding how long The Olde would be closed off, Odea was optimistic about students returning to their apartments before the storm hit.  

Spare room in Crossroads (Photo by Nolan Locke)

“We are in the midst of inspections/repairs to the area in addition to preparing for the impending storm,” said Lukas Gunderson, the assistant director of quality assurance. 

Heating was restored to The Olde Saturday evening, and residents were allowed to return to their apartments.