First-year students moved into Jean Royce Hall (JRH) without running water.
Since Sept. 1 approximately 60 residents of Roy House in Jean Royce Hall Phase Two have been without running water in their subsection due to a damaged pipe. Construction on the pipe means toilets, showers, sinks and other amenities in the subsection are out of commission.
JRH is predominantly a first-year residence building on West Campus, housing 597 students, 60 of which have been affected by the construction.
Students residing in Roy House are expected to use the facilities and bathrooms located in Miller House, based on emails from Residence Facilities Control Centre which were obtained by The Journal.
Kalan Morris-Poolman, Comp ’27, a student living in Roy House who has been affected by the construction, reported waiting a long time to use facilities because they’re much busier.
“The lack of water has made tasks such as going to the bathroom, brushing my teeth, and taking a shower quite inconvenient,” Morris-Poolman told The Journal.
Construction to restore running water to the subsection began on Sept. 18, with crews entering the residence to gain access to the damaged sanitary pipe.
Several students living on the first floor of the residence were relocated to other residences across main and west campuses to accommodate the construction.
Currently, Queen’s Facilites estimates running water won’t be restored until Sept. 25, leaving residents without water for over four weeks. Although running water will be reinstated, construction on JRH Phase Two isn’t expected to be completed until Oct. 2.
“We regret any inconvenience being experienced; all efforts have been taken to minimize the impact of this unexpected service interruption,” said Matt Savoie, director (facilities & infrastructure) housing & ancillary services, in a statement to The Journal.
“Residence Facilities continues to provide regular updates to students, and the repairs are expected to be completed by early next week.”
Students expressed they don’t think the University is adequately addressing or responding to their concerns about their living conditions.
“I don’t feel like the school is supporting us or addressing our concerns very well. For the first week we didn’t have water, the school completely left us in the dark, and only after being repeatedly emailed by our don did, we finally learn what was happening,” Morris-Poolman said.
“We later then met as a floor to discuss issues we were having, which was then communicated to the school through our don. Our don later got back to us with the schools’ response which addressed our concerns poorly and incompletely.”
Construction in JRH Phase Two is taking place from Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Construction deemed to be “noisy” won’t begin until 8 a.m.
Queen’s Residence Society (ResSoc), the student government for residence, explained they’re working to address and advocate for the concerns of students.
“[Students] felt like there wasn’t much of a plan in place so [ResSoc] forwarded that information along to facilities [facilities has] been sending more frequent emails on the matter, updating students with what has been going on,” ResSoc President Nathan Beckner-Stetson said in an interview with The Journal.
“We’re hoping to still keep in touch with students, see how they’re feeling about things, and be that line of communication between the folks in Jean Royce and the folks in the administration.”
Students expressed concerns they’re not receiving the residence experience they paid for in interviews with The Journal. They brought their concerns to residence dons in a community meeting in Roy House, which were passed along by dons to the administration. Students will be notified by their dons when the administration answers their questions.
Queen’s has yet to notify students if they will be refunded a portion of their residence fees for the inconvenience.
Tags
Construction, facilities, First-years, Residence
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