As temperatures are dropping, the number of students without heat in their dorms is rising.
Many students in the basement of Tall Hall have dealt with air conditioning units not working throughout the school year.
It’s become a greater issue now with the freezing temperatures and snowfall that’s impacted Belmont's campus.
“I’m in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a shirt and a hoodie, and I'm still sitting next to the heater. I'm so cold,” said senior audio engineering student Lee Williamson.
Students have been told that the the condenser units that help to control room temperatures can’t be fixed until the necessary parts come in.
Kiernan Tellier, a sophomore creative entertainment and industries major, lived in Patton and Maddox halls his freshman year and said he enjoyed both.
But Tall Hall hasn’t been the same story so far, he said.
“We had an issue with it last semester. And then it got fixed several times. And, you know, I think now it's not working again,” he said.
This problem has led to further discomfort for many residents now having to deal with below-freezing temperatures.
The students have been given spaceheaters until FMS can come and fix the issue again, which they are currently addressing.
“We did finally get the parts in and I got two guys up there now trying to install them. So hopefully we'll get it resolved quickly,” said Mark Grones, the university engineer.
Williamson said he hasn’t had an issue living in Tall Hall until the winter weather came in.
He said he appreciates the space heaters that have been provided to students but still hopes the issue can be resolved soon.
“Everybody's got one in the room. I'm gonna have to ask for another one,” he said. “There weren't any issues in my other room in the basement last summer.”
Grones said that the delay for fixing the condenser units for the basement of Tall Hall was because of supply chain issues with the necessary parts and outsourcing the repairs because of the complexity of the system and the units.
“In Tall Hall, that's almost completely outsourced but we'll go look at it and investigate when we get a call from a student and see what's going on first,” he said.
Grones said students may also notice issues in other halls with their temperature control because of the setting they put on their thermostat.
For instance, dry on the thermostat actually means that it will attempt to cool down the room.
“We try to help them understand that if they'll put it in auto, it will do what they typically want,” he said.
Grones says that student comfort is the office’s driving force, and they are attempting to fix the issue as quickly as possible.
For now, students will have to wait with their temporary space heaters until repairs can be made.
“We all just want to get it fixed. We really don't want to be freezing our butts off,” Tellier said.
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This article was written by Braden Simmons