Most University students looked forward to returning to the warm atmosphere of Happy Valley after the winter break, but some unlucky dorm dwellers received a chilling welcome.

As frigid temperatures hit the area -- with the past weekend being one of the coldest in recent memory -- residents of various dorms throughout the campus have complained of insufficient heat in their rooms.

"There's ice on the inside of the windows," said Lesley Bronakowski (freshman-division of undergraduate studies), who has spent recent nights in Pennypacker Hall underneath four blankets. "They're frozen shut."

Bronakowski said she called the Office of Housing and Food Service Operations last week but nothing has been done to correct the problem.

Fred Fotis, director of housing and laundry services, said, "When it gets this cold, it's difficult for the building to maintain heat."

The rooms in the corners of buildings are coldest because more air seeps in through the windows, Fotis said.

Beth Sherman (freshman-liberal arts) said her room in Pennypacker Hall has been cold since she returned from the winter break. "The vents aren't working," she said. "There's not much coming out at all."

Chris Robinson (senior-fashion merchandising) of Cross Hall said her room is cold but not as unbearable as last year, when she lived in a corner room.

"I'm just putting an extra sweatshirt on," she said. "It's not that bad."

But some corner room residents have found their rooms unseasonably warm since they returned from winter break.

"Our room is like a sauna," said Jennifer Keen (junior-English), who lives in a corner room in Beaver Hall. Keen said she has kept her window open to beat the heat.

The quest to find a comfortable environment has also been a struggle for Hamilton Hall resident Nick Langone (freshman-division of undergraduate studies), who said his room has no constant temperature.

"It's either freezing or boiling," he said. "It's one extreme and it's never in between."

Tener Hall resident Christina Ryan (junior-health policy administration) said she has not had much trouble with the cold air that has come through her corner room window recently.

"My heater works pretty good," she said. "I just turn it up all the way."

Another Tener Hall resident, Melissa Lang (sophomore-food science) said her corner room has not been very cold lately. "They seem colder on the other side of our hall," she said.

Fotis said if the weather warms up, Housing Services employees will be able to put plastic on the windows, but with the extreme cold the adhesive will not stick to the metal frames. For now, they are trying to help students survive the severe cold in other ways.

"We're providing extra blankets and we have extra rooms that we're offering people to move into," Fotis said.

Tamara Graff (sophomore-psychology and women's studies), a resident assistant on the third floor of Pennypacker Hall, said all the rooms have heat, but because it is so cold outside, not all of them are warm enough.

"Housing gave me a bag of wool blankets to give out," Graff said.

Amy Marshall (freshman-dairy and animal science) of Pennypacker Hall said she feels like she is living outside because she has been sleeping with several layers of clothes and gloves.

"We were joking we lived in the Arctic," she said.