College is all fun and games until someone loses a door. Since move-in day, two residents of Langmuir College in H Quad had a damaged door, and two months later, pair had no door at all.
The residents, John Harris and Niccolo Pagano, had their resident assistant submit a work order on Sept. 14 for the door, but heard nothing of it for a week.
“Fairly early in the school year, no more than a week in, I noticed when I closed the door, it would jump a little bit to lock,” said Pagano.
At the bottom of the door near the hinge, the outer panel was loose and pulling away — making the door difficult to close. Additionally, a deep crack ran along the edge of the door around the top and bottom hinges. Harris said, “It caused the door to not shut smoothly or at all.”
At the time, the residents did not know that the university was reworking their contract with the manufacturer which would delay the door.
Approximately one week later, according to the residents, workers came to assess the damage, and told them that it would need to be replaced.
Two weeks passed, and Harris and Pagano still had a broken door. They submitted a second work order, stating no work had been done.
Workers came two days later to confirm that no progress had been made, and again the residents were told it would be replaced. They were also told that a new door had been ordered and they were waiting for it to be delivered.
In the time between their move-in and the second assessment, the front panel pulled farther away from the door, the hinges loosened, and the door no longer properly fit in the frame. Pagano said, “When we closed it, it stopped before it set in the frame.”
On Oct. 22 as a friend of the residents left the room — unaware of the tricks devised and used to make the door close, such as lifting the handle and pushing the front panel back into place — he slammed the door shut, the force completing the crack near the hinges. The door was severed from top to bottom about two inches from the hinge, leaving nothing but a small strip of wood.
“Everyone expected it [to fall]” Harris said. “It was a relief because we knew we’d get a new door.”
Krystina Randazzo, the resident assitant on duty at the time, called the number to submit emergency work orders, 632-9585, and waited with the residents until the workers had arrived and she knew that the room would be secured.
The workers replaced the remains of their door with a temporary door from the warehouse at about 6:00 p.m. that same day. The door was not a perfect fit. It lacked a finish and peephole.
Randazzo was glad that it was done quickly. “It’s the first year we’ve had the emergency number,” she said. “It’s a great tool. In general, I was happy with the way they responded to the door breaking.”
Sean Law, Harris and Pagano’s resident assistant, said that the university was reworking its contract with the company that provides its residential doors, after which it would take six to eight weeks for the new door to arrive. He also said that the department did not want to replace the door with a temporary one unless they had to. “Why do the job twice when it can be done once?” he said.
As soon as it arrives, a finished should replace the temporary one. It is unclear when the door will arrive, the students said. The H Quad office would not release a summary of the work orders for Harris and Pagano’s room. Sept. 14 and Oct. 22 are the only known dates of the reports and repairs.
Kenneth Fehling of Residential Operations, who is in charge of all work orders on campus, would not comment. As such, it is unclear if the contract had been settled.
Harris and Pagano still have the temporary door at this time.