Alumni residents' heating troubles continue

As winter approaches, faulty thermostats in Alumni residence hall have left students cold.

Energy-conscious thermostats were installed in Alumni over the summer but have not been working properly this semester. Some of the thermostats, which operate by heat sensors, were installed on walls where the steam pipe is located. As a result, the thermostat senses the heat from the steam pipe and gives an inaccurate temperature reading.

Employees from NYU's Facilities and Construction Management have been moving the thermostats to walls without pipes. This past week, they visited various rooms in Alumni to repair them.

According to Beth Morningstar, who is in charge of FCM's communications operations, NYU installed the "smart" thermostats for student comfort and better heating and cooling monitoring. Morningstar added that by managing the unit automatically, less energy is wasted when the room is empty.

The same thermostats have been installed in other residence halls, but so far, have only posed problems in Alumni.

"Alumni is the only place that required going into student rooms on a wide basis," Morningstar said.

CAS junior Chad Mitchell had no heat until recently, when FCM repaired his thermostat. He said the process was smooth.

"The NYU servicemen cleaned up their mess and everything," Mitchell said.

But Stern senior Dara Phillips was dissatisfied.

"It was a pretty violating experience,"  Phillips said. "They left my roommate's chair on top of her bed. They unplugged all of my wires and didn't put them back."

And even after the repairs, Phillips said her heat still isn't working.

CAS sophomore Mona Zhang is in a similar situation.

"I got it fixed, and it still blows out cold air,"  Zhang said. "I guess I'm going to file another work request tomorrow." 

Morningstar apologized on behalf of FCM for any trouble experienced by students throughout the repair process.

"We are very sorry that students have been inconvenienced by this situation, and we appreciate their patience with the workers who have to come into their rooms to correct the problem,"  she said.