Student - October 23, 2008

Complaints about temperature in Forum

‘In the computer rooms it’s like being in a sauna, and in the practical rooms on the eighth floor it’s like the North Pole.’ Joyce Penninkhof, a student, is not happy about the climate in Forum. She’s not the only one: building manager Joris Fortuin is aware of the complaints, but cannot promise that the solution is near at hand.

‘It’s awful working here,’ sighs David Marcelis. ‘Turn the air conditioning off and open the windows,’ shouts back Stefan Sand. Like many students, they have had enough of it being either too hot or too cold in the new education building. ‘I take extra sweaters with me if I’m going to be in room C222. It’s like a freezer in there,’ says José Tegelaar. ‘And other rooms are far too hot.’

According to Fortuin, it was known before the building became operational that it would take at least a year to get the climate conditions in Forum right. ‘It’s impossible to adjust the temperature for each individual room – it’s always done for several rooms or floors together. This makes it difficult to create comfortable working conditions in each room.’

The building managers are working on solving the problems together with a number of companies. Work stopped during the summer months as there were few complaints. Now that the new academic year has started, the process has been revived. Adjustments are being made on the basis of the complaints received from students and employees, Fortuin says.