The hot water in the Castle was intermittently turned off for several days because of issues with the heating system, Jeremy Leiferman, the director of Community Living, told the Justice. There was an unexpected problem with the heating system in the Castle, and the heating was unable to be turned on as quickly as expected, Leiferman said. As the hot water and the heating system are interconnected, when Facilities Services ran into an unexpected problem with the heat, the hot water was subsequently affected, Leiferman explained.

The hot water in the Castle was turned off Oct. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Oct. 14 from 9:30 a.m. until the afternoon, said Michael Perloff '12, a resident and community advisor in the Castle. Perloff added that there was also no hot water from 10 a.m. until the afternoon on Oct. 15. Hot water has been working since Oct.15, Perloff said.

Leiferman stressed, however, that he did not know specifics about the heating issue in the Castle and that he was merely notified by Facilities about the problem.

Although Leiferman said he was only told of this issue in the Castle, there were complaints of similar problems in Scheffres Hall Oct. 18, where no hot water was available for the day.

CA Jordan Hinahara '12 advised residents in an Oct. 18 e-mail to contact Facilties.

Peter Baker, the director of Facilities, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the department has been working with the DCL to ensure proper heating in the dormitories. He wrote that he met with facility supervisors and was informed the conversion is now complete. He did not respond to further e-mails by press time.

"We will continue to respond to any local concerns through the work order system and any systemic issues will be communicated to the office of the Department of Community Living," Baker wrote.

Baker explained that this time of year is known as the "shoulder period" because the transition between seasons and the ambiguous weather makes it difficult to discern an appropriate time to turn on the heat.

"We can experience cool nights and warm days so it can sometimes be a challenge for the building systems to 'keep-up' with the changes," he wrote.

Leiferman said he was unaware of any correlation between the lack of heating and Brandeis' budgetary problems.

"The University has an obligation to provide heat to their students. The administration is not looking at that as a money-saving measure," he said.

Some students expressed their frustration at the abrupt lack of hot water.

"It was really ridiculous that for a whole weekend there was no hot water in the showers on any of the three floors," said Scheffres resident Rachita Mehrotra '13.

"It was mostly frustrating because my room has tile floors, so it was really cold and I didn't want to go back to my room. It was really frustrating. I am glad it was fixed," Castle resident Erica Lubitz '12 said.

"The lack of hot water for the day really wasn't that big of a deal since it got fixed pretty quickly," said another Scheffres resident, Zoe Li '13.



- Liz Posner contributed reporting