University of Waterloo students moving back to dorms as heating restored to residence buildings

A stressful week has come to an end for hundreds of University of Waterloo students after they were unexpectedly forced out of their residence buildings.

A stressful ordeal has come to an end for hundreds of University of Waterloo students after they were unexpectedly forced out of their residence buildings last week.

The heating is back on at the UW Place buildings after approximately 1,400 students living there had to find somewhere new to sleep when two boilers supplying heat to the residences malfunctioned on Jan. 13.

The heating was restored on Sunday, but before then, students had wait for the repairs to be completed. They were encouraged to stay with friends or family, but if they had nowhere else to go, the school arranged for alternative accommodation, including hotel stays.

“There were a few hotels they were sending us to. I think I got pretty lucky with the one I was at,” University of Waterloo student Shea Hardenbrook said. “I think they handled it pretty well.”

One of the hotels involved was the Holiday Inn Express in St. Jacobs.

“We received a call Tuesday afternoon from a representative from University of Waterloo Campus Housing asking how many rooms we had available,” Sean Nemett, the hotel’s sales manager, explained.

“One of the main factors and challenges was the time constraint. We were called on Tuesday afternoon, students were going to be checking in just a few hours later. We have a really good operations team here and were able to get rooms allocated, prepare registration cards, work with the university campus housing staff to make sure it was a very smooth check-in,” he said.

Meanwhile, the emergency management offices for the City of Waterloo and the Waterloo Region jumped into action to tackle the logistics.

“In my time in emergency management here, that would be the largest displacement I would say we were able to support in the community,” Dianne Schofield, a member of the region’s emergency management team, said.

The team is usually called in during natural disasters, such as floods, fires, or the tornado that hit Ayr last year.

“We know who to call, what service that they’re able to provide as part of the response and are able to activate quite quickly to support whenever they’re needed,” she said.

As for the university, they are thankful for the help.

“Everyone who had accommodation here pulled out the extra stops to make stuff available and to accommodate our students. We couldn’t be more grateful.”