Dorm Leaks Pester Students

After a week of rainy weather, Harvard students in at least five Houses complained about leaks in their dorms this weekend.

The leak problem affected students in both River and Quad Houses. A number of Currier and Kirkland House residents complained to their House open e-mail lists of leaks, and water was reported by students in Mather, Eliot, and Lowell Houses as well.

Currier resident Colleston A. Morgan Jr. ’07 said he found his dorm room carpet soaked with water on Saturday morning. Morgan said he responded to the problem by calling University Operations Services (UOS), which sent a worker to his room to investigate the problem.

Although the UOS worker was able to remove some of the water from his room, Morgan said he was told that the problem would not be fully resolved until today. Morgan added that the UOS worker told him that the problem stems from the caulking of the building.

UOS staff referred requests for comment to Robert Mitchell, director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Mitchell said he was unaware of the problem and could not comment further.

Morgan, who lives in Currier’s Gilbert Hall, said other Currier residents in both Gilbert and Bingham Halls—two of the four buildings that comprise the House—reported leaks to CurrierWire, Currier’s open e-mail list.

“I shot an e-mail to CurrierWire, and at least eight or nine other people responded that they had a similar problem,” he said.

Daniel J. Hopkins ’00, who was the Currier House tutor on call over the weekend, wrote in an e-mail that the problem does not actually stem from the roof of the buildings.

“It’s a minor problem in how the windows are sealed that leads to leaks only very occasionally, when there is considerable rain and also heavy wind,” he wrote. “When water is blown sideways or when it rains for many days, it can build up and seep in through the bottom of the window fixtures.”

Hopkins said that approximately 15 Currier residents had been affected by the problem.

River House residents also complained about leaky roofs this weekend. Ania C. Bleszynski, who was the Kirkland House tutor on call, wrote in an e-mail she contacted UOS after she noticed at least three e-mails to the Kirkland open e-mail list complaining about leaks.

UOS “said this is a problem which generally happens university wide after an extended period of rain,” Bleszynski wrote. “They said there is nothing that can be done to fix the problem at this point.”

She wrote that UOS promised to send people with mops and buckets to provide temporary relief, but that more serious building repair problems would be fixed after the rain subsided.

Bleszynski, who has lived in Kirkland for more than three years, wrote that she could not recall that leaking had ever been a problem before.

Hopkins, who has lived in Currier for 16 months, wrote that he also was unaware of leak problems before this weekend.

The Currier House “facilities staff who have helped call it a ‘freak occurrence,’” he wrote.