The heat isrising, and so are the complaints about the air conditioning problems on campusSouthern University’s campus.
”Its mostly warm in this building” saidEvelyn Bickham, an administrative assistant for the SU Department of SocialResearch located in Higgins Hall. “I have to use my fan.”
Students andadministrators are fed up with the ongoing complications in the buildings anddorms, with the air conditioning units as well as the Central system.
“I have tosleep naked,” said Jermain Wilson, a senior from New Orleans majoring inelementary education. ” It’s freezing one minute and hot the next.”
Marilyn Hill,director of housing, said if a student is having problems they should reportthem.
”If it’s not reported in a reasonabletime the Office of Residential housing should be called. After completing arequest a technician will be sent and if the problem is unfixable the unit willbe replaced.”
There are 800window units in the resident halls on the campus. Samuella V. Totty Hall,Camille E. Shade Hall, Wallace L. Bradford Hall, and Grandison Clark Hall arethe only dorms controlled from the Central Plants auto control system.
“We spend 1.2million dollars annually in utilities,” Hill said. “Air units are runningtwenty-four seven; they should put them on schedule.”
Although thewall units in the dorms are cause for concern, the central system is a morecomplex situation.
“The pipes haveaged and developed leaks,” said Eli Guillory III, executive director of thephysical plant. “There are signs of erosion.”
The 4-pipeLoop System, a chilling and heating hot water distribution piping systeminstalled in the early 1990s, serves the majority of the SUBR campus.
Only a portionof the northern part of campus is not served by the system.
“We must lookat the big picture, and first have the source corrected,” Guillory said. “Thestate has allocated ‘x’ amount of dollars to fix the problem, and it’s in thepreliminary planning stage.”
The pipingsituation makes controlling the temperature in certain buildings nearlyimpossible. This accounts for the newer buildings experiencing uncomfortabletemperatures. However, some of the older buildings are hot for a number ofreasons.
“Stewart hasto be modernized,” Guillory said. “There is major energy in these rooms, withthe computers and all.”
In an attemptto modernize the system, a modulating 2-way valve is being put into place.Totty Hall and Shade Hall resident halls are already equipped with the moreadvanced cooling system. The new engineering building will also receive a newsystem.
“These thingstake time,” Guillory said. “But we are making progress.”
