As temperatures dropped into the single digits last week, housing officials have received several complaints about dorm rooms being cold.

"The temperature had been down for such an extended period that it was creating some issues," David Manos, assistant director of housing operations for East, North and West Halls, said.

Prentiss Dantzler, (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) who lives in Haller Hall, said his dorm has been cold since it got colder outside. To stay warm, he had used a heater he bought at Wal-Mart, but that still isn't enough.

"It's colder than outside sometimes," he said.

In an e-mail message, Dantzler said housing responded to his complaints but said there was nothing wrong with his vents.

"On top of that, my [personal] heater broke," Dantzler wrote. "So, now I have to put more money out of my pocket and get another one."

Julia Shaw, (freshman-political science) who lives in McKean Hall, said for a few nights, she slept with two sweatshirts and four extra blankets in a dorm room that was colder than the hallway just outside her door.

She said after she e-mailed housing, they came to her room and moved all her belongings away from the heater.

"They didn't say what they had fixed," Shaw said. "They said the curtains must stay pushed behind what is on the windowsill and the fridge has to be pulled away from the heater."

Shaw said, even though housing said her window hadn't been properly latched, she thought it had been completely shut. Regardless, whatever housing did fix, "it helped a lot," Shaw said.

The heating in the resident halls hasn't been as efficient because iron oxide in the pipes creates sludge, which restricts the heating flowing from the radiators, Paul Ruskin, spokesman for the Office of Physical Plant (OPP), said. The buildup of iron oxide is a natural process that occurs over time and coupled with older components, has led to the chilliness that some students feel, he added.

OPP has slowly been making improvements to the heating systems in older buildings by replacing the heating control systems and adding filtration components, which allows heat to flow more efficiently throughout the buildings, Ruskin said.

He also said the average age of buildings on campus is 36 years old, and the windows in those older buildings are not as energy efficient.

Last summer, OPP made these types of renovations in West Halls and added insulation to the attics. Fewer complaints about chilly dorms have been received in West and North, which has also undergone recent renovation.

Manos said he received the most complaints from Hastings and Snyder Halls, located in East Halls. In South and Pollock Halls, calls about cold dorms were more evenly distributed with fewer calls coming from Simmons, McElwain and Atherton Halls in South, Chad Henning, assistant director of housing operations for South and Pollock Halls, said.

Although complaints have been considerably less the past few days, students whose dorms rooms are unusually chilly should still call housing to inform them of the problem, Manos said. He added that maintenance officials should normally respond within 24 hours.

"Their comfort is important to us, and they need to call or e-mail their housing area office as soon as there is an issue," he said. "The sooner we hear from them, the sooner we can respond."

Manos urged students to remove all personal belongings from around the radiators so that airflow in the room is at a maximum.