On Feb. 8, two Guadalupe Hall residents met with the Student Government Association (SGA) Business Affairs committee chair, Duncan Reedyk, to discuss a hot water access issue, which further led to the identification of other issues at the residence hall.

Director of Campus Services Lee Myers stated that the university received work orders for two separate locations in Guadalupe Hall regarding hot water access, dated March 14 and March 28. 

According to Reedyk, the initial issue expressed by the two students was that hot water access would shut down from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day. 

“So during that time, there was no hot water access [and] of course students being up late, working late, they take showers in the evenings and they weren’t really able to do that without hot water,” Reedyk said. 

The students were directed to SGA after raising the issue with their RAs. After the issue was reported to SGA, Reedyk explained that they wanted to “hear out the two students, what their sort of side of the story was.” 

“I know that [the two students] had sort of been spearheading the issue in terms of talking with other students around Guadalupe,” Reedyk said. “There [have] been other resident group chats where they were monitoring the feedback and such. So these two individuals were representing the rest of [the] student residents there. So, of course, we wanted to hear out their complaints, hear what their sort of experiences were, things that they were noticing.”

As the Business Affairs chair, Reedyk works closely with university departments, including housing, campus services and facilities. Following the meeting with students to understand the issue, Reedyk then reached out to Myers to further discuss the issue.

Since then, the university has been in contact with the concerned students and SGA as they work to address the issues. 

However, as Reedyk explained, while fixing the initial issue, the university also identified other issues. 

“It’s actually been a little bit complicated, I think, for the maintenance side of things,” Reedyk said. “Guadalupe is a brand new building of course. It’s one of the LEED Certified buildings here, right, so there’s a lot of sustainability projects and sensors throughout the building. Initially, they were looking at what they thought was one fix — it was a malfunctioning sensor — and that led them to find a couple [of] other things. As they would try and adjust one issue, they would then look and find something else.”

So far, all the things that have been done are temporary fixes while the university waits for parts on backorder.

At the time of the interview, Reedyk had last been updated on March 23, when the university stated that a second company had been contacted to evaluate the Guadalupe Hall building and make sure the right issues were being addressed. 

The Paisano contacted the university for further clarification about the issue and its resolution. Regarding the aforementioned work orders concerning hot water, Myers stated that “all monitoring shows the system is currently working.” Myers also stated that the university has hired two contractors to determine the cause of this concern.

For more information about UTSA Housing, visit https://housing.utsa.edu/. To convey any concerns to SGA, visit the organization’s office in the H-E-B Student Union (HSU 1.214) or email at [email protected].