News Briefs

Leverett Shivers As Towers Repaired

Leverett House residents spent yesterday afternoon in the cold after Harvard engingeers shut off the heat to perform one-day emergency repairs on the house's central heating system.

Repairs affected the house's F and G Towers, as well as its library, as engineers fixed steam valves in the tower basements, said Superintendent P. Warren Nugent.

Maintenance workers hoped to head off more serious problems. "The [heating system] is not working properly," said Nugent. "If it is not fixed and it breaks down altogether, Leverett House resident could be without heat for quite a few days."

"If the valve were to go, who knows how much damage would be done," Nugent added.

Tower residents complained about the cold, but most added that they are accustomed to chilly temperatures. "It's been cold in here all year. I don't think I'm going to feel the difference," Dara F. Raspberry '92 said yesterday afternoon.

"It's kind of a bad time for them to be shutting off the heat," Michael A. Fischer '92 said. Yesterday was one of the coldest of the fall, and temperatures were expected to drop into the 30s last night.

Leverett House Master John E. Dowling '57 said that he did not know about the heating system shutdown. "No one said boo to me today," he said. "As far as I know there hasn't been a problem."

High-Tech Phones In Place At Houses

New, higher-technology and theftproof outdoor telephones are being installed around the houses as part of an updating of Harvard's telephone service, according to the Office of Information and Technology (OIT).

Old rotary-dial Centrex models have already been replaced at Leverett, Kirkland and North Houses, said OIT Systems Analyst Laurie M. Tassinari.

The new machines, which feature touchtone dialing, an emergency police access button, a two-way intercom and no handset, are expected to be last longer than their predecessors, Tassinari said.

Handsets of the older models were frequent targets for theft.

Regular replacement of all outdoor phones will begin next spring as OIT completes rewiring of University buildings for the multi-million dollar Intellipath system, she said.

While all current phone sets will be replaced, more may be added. "If the department responsible for the building wants to add another outdoor telephone, we will do it at that time," Tassinari said.

Although none of the three houses with the new sets have yet been rewired, OIT decided to install the updated version when old telephones broke. "Some of the time when they were needed we went and put in the new ones for them immediately," Tassinari said.