Hot N Cold

With Harvard's old heating systems and generally non-existent air-conditioning, it is of little surprise that during this transition from the uncomfortably warm Cambridge summer to the unbearably cold Cambridge winter some students would find the temperature of their rooms less than satisfactory. (Yeah, it snowed today.)

Since the beginning of the month e-mails have been hitting House lists asking, in one form or another, "When is the heat getting turned on?"

One member of Winthrop House went apple picking and returned to a cold room, emailing Winthrop House to find out when it would get a little warmer. Responded a Winthrop senior, helpfully:

Another responded with knowledge that seemed to be gained from first hand experience:

It's advice that appears to have been particularly pertinent for Eliot residents, who over the weekend complained of sweltering conditions and radiators like the surface of the sun. More, after the jump.

Each House has to cope with its own unique radiator problems and start dates—and of course there is no universal agreement on when heating is needed. With recent budget cuts, including the loss of hot breakfast, some students if only sarcastically have expressed skepticism that heat will be turned on sometime soon. One Kirkland resident joked,

While some Houses have begun to turn their heat on, two weeks ago one Quincy House resident worried he would not make it to the winter.

I have no glove. I have no fire. I have no brightly colored peruvian hat. My roommates cannot type without mittens and they have no mittens or they would agree.

We cannot get out. We cannot get out. It is coming.