To: Wellesley Students
From: Dave Chakraborty, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management, and Helen Wang, Director of Residence Life & Housing
Re: Update on Residence Hall Renovations
Date: November 14, 2019
 

As you may be aware, during the fall the Facilities team and Residence Life staff completed a full health and safety assessment of all student rooms in the residence halls. The vast majority were found to be in good overall condition. We did, however, identify a number of student rooms in need of painting and flooring work. Based upon this assessment, we have developed a comprehensive plan that includes some work to be undertaken over winter break and more extensive work to be completed this summer.

Winter break renovations

Over winter break, 26 rooms will be painted in various locations across Tower, Claflin, Beebe, Stone Davis, Severance, Munger, and Orchard. Five rooms will receive new flooring in Tower, Claflin, and Lake House. Facilities has coordinated with Residence Life to contact affected students directly; they have already been notified, and we have given them instructions for preparing their rooms for the work.

We will address the repairs needed inside closets this summer, to minimize disruption to students. We will not paint radiators this winter as doing so would require us to turn off the heat. Also, some students have asked about the banging sounds that sometimes come from radiators at this time of year; please know that the noise is temporary and will stop once temperatures have normalized.

Summer 2020 renovations

We previously shared our plans to focus this summer on securing the building envelopes at Tower, Claflin, and Severance. Based on the room inspections and a recent masonry assessment, we are expanding that work to include Beebe and Munger. Our goal is to address the most urgent exterior needs of the buildings to prevent and mitigate water damage in the future. This will involve masonry repointing, stone repairs, and roof repairs for all these buildings. We also plan to paint all the rooms in Tower, Claflin, Severance, and Beebe. As needed, we will replace carpets with resilient flooring. In Munger, we’ll be adding updated lighting and furniture to the common spaces. We will also be addressing higher-priority accessibility issues in residence halls on the east side.

Submitting and following up on work orders

In the upcoming winter months, if you experience any problems with your room, please let us know so that we can address the issue quickly. This flyer includes detailed instructions for submitting an order. Please contact your resident assistant or house president, who can walk you through the process if you have questions.

Once you have submitted a work order, Facilities is authorized to begin work on the repair, so you may not receive further advance notification. At all times, Facilities staff will knock on your door and announce themselves to give you an opportunity to open the door prior to their entry. At no point will a staff member enter any student room without knocking loudly and waiting for a response. If there is no response, they will enter the room and begin work. Please contact your community director if you have any questions or concerns about Facilities staff entering your room.

Thank you for your patience as we work to improve our residential spaces to ensure that all of our students enjoy safe, comfortable living arrangements.