The Panther Prints ¢

Residence Water Problems: Survey Results

By Bruce Henry

After returning from a most splendid Christmas Holi- day, I noticed my morning showers at Blanchard Hall were not as pleasant as before. The water temperature kept changing from hot to cold my adjusting the taps. At one point during my cleansing he water was so hot I scorched my feet and found myself climbing the shower walls while trying to turn off the hot water. After an hour my feet finally stopped burning and on my way to class I men- tioned my complaint/concern to a Residence Assistance (RA).

I spoke with the same RA later in the day to ask if they had any feedback towards my complaint, but nothing had been done because they ad been unable to get in touch with maintenance. Feeling unsatisfied with the response, I took it upon myself to con- duct a survey about the water problem in UPEI's dorms.

The survey, conducted January 16, covered all three residence at UPEI was com- prised of the following ques- tions: Number of people in each room? How many peo- ple were affected? When did it start? Did anyone get burned? (This question was later changed to Was it hot enough to get out of the way? and Did they tell anyone? Why or why not?

Of the 107 people inter- viewed at Blanchard Hall, 74 of them were affected by the water problem, 7 people had been scorched, 98% of the af- fected students felt the water was so hot they had to avoid it by; jumping out of shower, climbing the shower walls,

turning off the hot water, or re-adjusting the taps.

In Marian Hall 29 peo- ple were surveyed and 13 were affected to the point where they had to move out of the flow of water. One Marian student said they experienced this water problem during all four years at UPEI and to them it felt like “...another day.”

Of the ten people avail- able for comment in Bernardine Hall, nine said they had also been affected by changes in the water tempera- ture.

Wayne Boudreau, Chef Engineer for The Physical Plant, was notified about the domestic water problem at Blanchard Hall and he then called a field technician from Trigen-PEI who looked at the problem and according to Boudreau replaced the Off Water Temperature Control Valve.

Boudreau then explained how this water temperature unbalance can occur. For ex- ample when your take a shower and someone in another apart- ment uses water the pressure from the hot water pipeline will drop allowing more cold water to enter giving you a shot of cold or vise versa. The only solution according to Boudreau is to install pressure balancing valves. These are shower knobs that take in both hot and cold water under one pipe and that adapts to pres- sure change when required.

Since the off water tem- perature control valve been replaced, showers at Blanchard have dramatically improved. For Marian and Bernadine residents who are still having a problem with

fluctuating water tempera-

tures, contact Marc Braithwaite at Student Devel- opment.

Marc Braithwaite is re- sponsible for residence budg- ets and fees, physical facili- ties (cleaning, maintenance, and renovations), administra- tive policies and procedures, personnel matters (selection, training and supervision) food service liaison, student disci- pline, residence life direction, and residence student recruit- ment, also responsible for summer conference facility bookings, conference sched- uling as well as summer op- erations management. And for Residence Life Coordina- tor he is in charge of develop- ing a positive living environ- ment for residence students which promotes both aca- demic and personal develop- ment. Other responsibilities include policy/procedure ad- ministration, crisis interven- tion, student staff supervision, House Council to RA’s, resi- dence orientation, room as- signment, and production of the Residence Life Handbook. So if your problem fits into one of these categories you can reach Marc Braithwaite at Student Services located in Robertson Library building or give his a call at (902) 566- 0362 and if that doesn’t work write him an_— e-mail MBRAITHWAITE@UPEILCA or RESIDENCE@UPEI.CA

Next issue: a look into the heaters at Blanchard Hall. Do we really have control ?

January 28, 1997

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