Hot Water and Phone Jacks Lacking Due to Renovations

Despite what officials call the most hassle-five summer yet of House renovations, some students in Dunster, Eliot and Kirkland Houses are without hot water and working phone jacks.

The renovations of the three dorms, the third group of buildings to receive facelifts in the $16.25 million River House renovations program, fell behind schedule in August, and Harvard officials had to double some parts of the work force to catch up.

In Dunster, for example, the number of electricians went from 40 to 80, according to Roger J. Cayer Jr., Harvard's project manager.

As of yesterday afternoon, Eliot House had only cold water, but resident tutor Donald D. Bacon said, "rumors are we'll have hot water today or tomorrow."

"As far as I know, we haven't had much lamentation from the students." Eliot Master Alan E. Heimert said.

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Although officials said last month that Dunster, Eliot, and Kirkland were all behind schedule in phone work, working jacks are missing from only 20 rooms, 15 of them in Dunster, according to Paul M. Conway, director of operations for the Harvard telecommunications office.

Electricians had to wire approximately 15 percent of Dunster's phone jacks with temporary cables, but they will be replaced with permanent ones later in the year, according to Associate Dean for Facilities R. Thomas Quinn.

Although the renovations are on schedule, Quinn said yesterday that work crews may remain on the job as long as six more weeks.

"The are probably glitches in all three Houses," Quinn said. "But I don't think any of them are major."

Nearly all student rooms are finished, except for minor jobs including some plaster repair and local electrical work, Quinn said.

Bacon added that Eliot House tutors and students have registered "a thousand complaints. Electrical outlets don't work, overhead lights don't work, screens and storm windows are still going up."

But we said that the workload "is cooling off very rapidly, and most of the [work crews] are starting to leave."

Quinn added that he was pleased that the project, the third in as many years, had gone relatively smoothly. "We've learned how to do it now," he said.