On Saturday, Sept. 7, one of the two hot water boilers that Oberlin operates suffered a cracked tube in its heat exchanger. This resulted in the supply of hot water temporarily stopping in all buildings that were converted by the Sustainable Infrastructure Program, which includes 56 buildings and 90 percent of campus.

According to Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown, the supply of hot water was restored on Saturday afternoon to Baldwin Cottage, Dascomb Hall, Harvey House, Kade House, Price House, Saunders House, South Hall, Talcott Hall, and Union Street Village Housing using backup stand-alone natural gas water heaters.

Bailey Hall, Barrows Hall, Burton Hall, East Hall, Langston Hall, and Zechiel Hall continued receiving their domestic hot water through heat exchangers, which are being energized from the district system through “modified means.”

According to Brown, the boiler is not operational, and expert engineers evaluated the issue to create a repair plan. However, campus-wide heating for water is fully available and stable.