Trouble In the Pipes

The plans sounded brilliant. By turning off hitherto unknown heating valves during vacation and creating cold zones throughout the House system, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences could save perhaps $150,000 in heating bills.

The people in Buildings and Grounds had made several studies; they logged hundreds of man-hours planning the shutdown. The valves were closed like clockwork at the beginning of the school break.

And then everybody went on vacation. Not just the students, but almost all the people who should have been monitoring the heating temperature in the rooms, making sure that the flood that took place in several Houses and freshman dormitories did not occur.

With just a skeleton crew of caretakers on hand, most of whom were unfamiliar with the shutdown plans, it's understandable that the temperatures could plummet to zero without anyone bothering to turn the heat back on.

And with just a handful of people monitoring the cold zones, it's no wonder that water could begin leaking from a radiator on the fourth floor of Eliot House and not be detected until it hit basement level.

It's problems like those that haunt administrators as they answer questions regarding the Christmas pipes disaster, which will Harvard at least $50,000 in insurance funds for facility damages and another $12,000 or more for personal damages.

No one knows for sure exactly what the total damages will come to. If certain floors prove to be too weak in the damaged rooms, then they will have to be replaced, substantially jacking up the costs. Other personal costs have not been tabulated.

And the problem of morale, principally of the overworked skeleton crew that had to clean up all the damages before sutdents returned and of those students who came back to study and found massive re-decorating to be their first chore, can't be assessed.

Nevertheless; administrators in charge of the energy conservation project, including Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for administration, are calling this year's program a near-total victory.

"We make thermostats out of people," Hall said while explaining how the University will still net at least $150,000 in fuel savings over the vacation.

"I'm convinced that despite the unfortunate freeze-ups the program at Harvard over vacation was very successful," Hall said, adding that less than 5 per cent of the 357 Harvard buildings involved in the shut-down were damaged by the floods.