It all started with an email on Jan 13: “We have learned that both boilers supplying heat to UW Place (UWP) have malfunctioned. It is anticipated that heat will not be restored for a minimum of 72 hours due to the complexity and size of the infrastructure issue. We ask all UWP residents to temporarily relocate while heat and hot water are being restored.” 

The immediate response? Surprise. Disbelief. Anger. “It’s just a little cold what’s the big deal,” says u/JorgenJorgenson. “For at least 2 nights too?? I literally just had my window open because my room was too warm,” says u/UnseenDegree. Many lamented their newfound homelessness, sharing pictures of the email along with thermometers in their rooms on Instagram showing the temperature to be 12 degrees Celsius.

Shuttle buses run incessantly to ferry groups of tired, bewildered students, their luggage in tow, to temporary shelters scattered across the city. The university makes accommodations at nearby hotels, inns, and the neighbouring Wilfrid Laurier University to house the “UWP refugees” at whatever cost. With no hot food to eat or cafeterias to turn to, granola bars and bottled water become the sole sustenance for these stranded students.

The night, chaotic and exhausting as it was, eventually gives way to the morning, bringing a mix of weary faces and tentative relief. Delayed photos show up online of spacious hotel rooms offering rare comforts, cramped dormitory-style accommodations hastily arranged, and impromptu gatherings of displaced students sharing their stories of the upheaval. The one consolation comes in the form of another email sent out on Jan. 14, notifying all affected individuals of a complimentary $100 top-up on their meal cards.

And then, calm. A crisis, yes, but one that was averted in time. All is peaceful, at least until another email on the morning of Jan 15: “We are sorry to share that your hotel room will not be available after this evening and you must relocate tomorrow. You will need to remove your belongings and check out by 11 a.m. To continue to provide you with emergency housing, we’ve converted some of our lockable on-campus residence spaces into temporary bedrooms. After checking out, please take the shuttle bus or ION back to campus. Starting at 1 p.m., you can visit our staff in the CMH Great Hall to get your temporary on-campus emergency housing assignment. For your convenience, we will have shuttles running from CMH to these locations until 10:30 p.m.”

“What is a ‘lockable on campus residence space’? Sounds almost like offices turned into bedrooms,” says u/ragnar_lodbrok_. Once again, our “UWP refugees” relocate, this time to the public lounge spaces in other residence buildings like Village 1. The question becomes why? Was it really because of the money? u/Massive-Repair-5462 doesn’t think so: “The hotel rooms have reservations for the weekend, its not because they can’t afford them. Based on the deficit, they could never afford them in the first place!” 

On Jan. 16, another email from the Associate Provost, Chris Reed, requesting assistance from the UW community: “I’m reaching out to ask for your help. On Monday evening, we worked with approximately 1,400 students to temporarily relocate them from most UW Place residence buildings due to a lack of heat and hot water. It is expected that these students will remain in their temporary accommodations through the weekend, and as such, we’re looking for volunteers to help the Campus Housing team continue to support them.”

Radio silence over the weekend. Calm once again, now that our students have been housed in these “lockable on-campus residence spaces.” Then finally, on Jan. 20, the final email: “I’m pleased to share that all students temporarily displaced by the heating issues at some University of Waterloo Place (UWP) residence buildings were invited to move back into their rooms beginning Sunday morning. This process in ongoing, but most students have now settled back into their usual accommodations. Permanent fixes to the University-owned boilers at UWP will be required and the temporary boilers will stay in place until they are complete.

“To the Plant Operations and Campus Housing teams who have been working around the clock to bring heat back to these buildings and to support our students while they had to be away – thank you. The Athletics team was also instrumental in ensuring that students were able to move out quickly to Columbia Icefield when the decision was made that it wasn’t safe to stay overnight in UWP. I’m also very touched to share that so many employees answered our call for volunteers for this past weekend that we didn’t have enough shifts to fill the demand. Each of you ensured that there was a friendly face for students to connect with in their temporary accommodations, and I’m very grateful for that.”

And so it appears with the silent return of the displaced into their rightful UWP homes over the weekend, it is here where our “Boilergate” story ends. Imprint has reached out to displaced students to hear more about their experience and how they felt the university handled the crisis.