Whenever anyone visits Tingelstad Residence Hall, two questions might cross their mind: Why are there so many stairs? And where are all the drinking fountains? While the answer to the first question is fairly simple, the second question remains unanswered. Based on a survey of every dorm building on campus, Tingelstad can officially call itself the dorm with the busiest drinking fountains.
Tingelstad simultaneously has the most students and least hydration stations out of any dorm in PLU. It clocks in at a ratio of 81 students per drinking fountain, when most halls remain in the single digits or low tens. The fact that its only hydration stations on the ground floor, where there are no dorm rooms, makes accessing them an inconvenience for anyone living on Tingelstad’s eight other floors.
None of Tingelstad’s are broken. The same applies to four out of the seven surveyed halls. Kreidler Hall holds the record for the most amount, with two times as many broken fountains as it has functioning ones. Its water bottle refill stations and a relatively small population keep it from having too high of a ratio of students to hydration stations, though. Kreidler is followed in the broken fountain count by Hinderlie Hall and Ordal Hall.
How long will it take for these fountains to be repaired? Gregory Perkinson, the Associate Vice President of Facilities Management, explained that the wait “depends on numerous factors, including parts availability, backlog and how the work order is prioritized by the Facilities Management department”, with no definite window of time after an RA submits a work order to Facilities Management. While the filters for all the hydration stations are regularly changed out in the summer and winter, there’s simply no telling when a broken fountain will have their “OUT OF ORDER” sign peeled off.
For transparency, not every dorm building was surveyed. South Hall was excluded because it was constructed with personal kitchens in every resident’s room. Additionally, only drinking fountains and water bottle refill stations were counted as “hydration stations.” Any fountain which did not produce water or had water pressure so low that drinking from it became difficult was counted as a broken fountain. The statistics on how many students are currently in each hall came from Dhaval Patel, the Associate Director for Campus Life Operations while Rick Burnley, the Campus Services Manager, provided insight into how various facilities are classified by law.
PLU’s student body might be comforted to know that their need for easy access to drinking water is backed by state law. The Washington Administrative Code 51-50-2902.5.2 specifies that “Drinking fountains shall be provided on each floor having more than 30 occupants in schools, dormitories, auditoriums, theaters, offices, and public buildings.” Every dorm building included in this survey meets state building code regulations… except for Tingelstad. With a population of 243 students and eight floors for them to live on, Tingelstad has an average of 30.375 students per floor. There are zero drinking fountains anywhere besides the ground floor, which does not have any occupants. This means that at least one floor in Tingelstad would be in violation of the current Washington Administrative Code standards, though since it was built in 1967 it is not held to current standards, according to Rick Burnley.
There’s no need to fear dehydration. Gregory Perkinson reassures students that all the sinks on campus are safe to drink from, meaning that any PLU student with a water bottle should be able to drink their fill. Even Tingelstad, which has kitchens with running water available on four out of nine floors, should have water aplenty for all its students. Still, it’s clear that some halls are a lot better off than others as far as access to water goes.
