Grand Mesa Hall, one of the dorms located on Colorado Mesa University (CMU)’s campus, has had a couple of issues this semester. From complete water shut-offs to a hot water outage, the residents of this dorm have been through it this semester.

Throughout this last semester, Grand Mesa residents faced a number of problems with their hot water. With temporary fixes and hot water outages happening sporadically, residents had to get used to unreliable access to warm water. Many students reported that the water wouldn’t warm in any way, with many students facing showers that were entirely intolerable. 

The complete hot water outage at Grand Mesa began sometime on Feb. 4th, with many students panicking over the absence of hot water running from their faucets. For almost two whole days, students were left with only cold water available in this troublesome dorm.

For many, the lack of hot water deterred students from showering, since the water, as one student stated, was “ice cold.” Two days of no showering angered and annoyed all residents who were unfortunate enough to be present in the dorms as the days dragged on. 

One student, who would like to remain unnamed, was so desperate to shower that she filled all of her pots and pans with cold water, heated it in the microwave, and then bathed herself as much as she could, as she “just wanted to feel clean.” 

In their desperation, some students even left with their shower bags in hand to other dorms to find a proper shower. 

The most devastating fact of this ordeal was that students had heard nothing surrounding the issue from CMU. Without any announcment or communication, Grand Mesa residents were left to wonder if the problem was one that CMU was even working to resolve. It was not until 2:24 p.m. on Feb. 5th that students heard from Residence Life.

The message came as follows, “Grand Mesa Residents, we have been informed that the hot water in Grand Mesa has stopped working. Facilities [have] told us that it should be fixed by tomorrow. We apologize for the inconvenience.” 

Luckily, by Monday morning the hot water was fixed, but this is not the first of the many problems that haunt Grand Mesa. 

What Grand Mesa needs is better overall maintenance, upkeep and timely maintenance check-ups to ensure student satisfaction. Whatever the issue may be, the residents of Grand Mesa and other dorm buildings do not deserve to be short-handed.