Summer orientation: $150. Tuition: $6,000. Frosh week: $150. Residence fees: $8000. Being able to take a hot shower for the first time in 26 days: priceless.
A relaxing hot shower is the best way to start a day. Unfortunately for myself and the three students with whom I share a bathroom, we were robbed of this luxury for the first 26 days of school.
The bathroom between rooms 403 and 405 of Dundas House was not the relaxing paradise it should have been for the first four weeks of school, but a house of torture.
The shower in our bathroom refused to get hot. No matter the position of the temperature handle, the water remained ice cold and then for a tantalizing few seconds of ecstasy, the bather would experience heat before being thrown back into the sharp reality of a cold shower.
A few days into frosh week, we realized this was not an issue which was going to rectify itself, so as new students fully trusting in the housing department, we put in a work order for the shower to be fixed.
Two days later our saviour appeared, basking in the glow of the fluorescent light bulbs. He fiddled around with the shower and told us he would be back the next day to finish the job. Just like being stood up on a second date, tomorrow came and the man never returned.
Over the course of the next two weeks, my roommates and I continued to suffer through the agony of cold showers. But we persevered and, despite our first setback, continued to put faith in the housing department and placed work order after work order. Between the four of us there were six work orders placed about our shower.
All these resulted in were emails back from the housing department stating how they were “experiencing a high volume of requests and they would try their best to respond quickly.”
Eventually enough was enough and I sent a strongly worded email explaining our situation and how poorly we had been treated.
Within three hours a manager of the housing office was at my door and our shower was fixed at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. This restored my faith in the Carleton residence staff and finally allowed me and my roommates a warm shower.
So to any fellow students living in residence, a more direct approach is needed when dealing with issues in your room.
