Heidi Plato

Of all the things a college student can’t control, the temperature of your dorm room can be the most frustrating, said sophomore Amy Madura.

It can be unbearably hot in your room one day and really cold the next, said the Bridgman Hall resident. These unsteady temperatures are the reason Madura said her dorm window is open most of the time.

Without individual thermostats in student rooms, many students often complain about the temperature of their rooms.

The possibility of equipping dorm rooms with individual thermostats has been discussed a lot in previous years, said Tom Schwartz, associate director of housing and residence life.

But even though it probably will happen sometime in the future, it won’t be anytime soon, Schwartz said. Because of recent housing projects such as the building of Chancellors Hall and putting Ethernet in all of the residence halls, a project as big and costly as thermostats in dorm rooms would have to wait a few years, he said.

“We’d love to do it eventually,” Schwartz said.

UW-Platteville recently completed plans to install thermostatic radiator valves in each residence hall room, giving each room individual control. Additional costs of under $100 dollars will be added into a student’s rooming fees to fund the project, which will be completed this fall.

Madura said she wouldn’t be opposed to paying more for control of the temperature in her room.

Currently, the temperature of rooms in a dorm such as Bridgman Hall is controlled by one or two rooms per cube section. A valve on that room’s heating vent controls the temperature for all rooms in that section.

This can cause problems, Schwartz said. For example, if the vent is next to something such as an open window, the heat will not come on in that room and several others, he said.

A number of items with a project like this would have to be worked out, Schwartz said, such as how the project could be completed when dorms are full of students for nine months of the year. It would take longer than the summer months, he said, and its cost would be a big factor, too.

Schwartz said it would be interesting to see how Platteville’s project turns out.

Decisions about campus projects important to students are made by United Council and the Housing office.

Chuck Major, director of housing and residence life, said a survey is distributed each semester to residents about dorm life.

Although questions about room temperatures are not included on the survey, Major said they often hear complaints in the fall and spring when the system is adjusting to changing temperatures.