We normally don’t think about our appliances often. They hardly ever cross our minds until there is an issue operating them. This proved to be the case with yours truly last Friday when my air conditioner stopped working in my Housing 5 Apartment. It started out like it typically does: you’re walking around and you get hotter and hotter so you check the thermostat, and to your disgust, the air conditioner does not turn on. So, I checked Stockton’s website and it says if there is an issue with your HVAC system, you must put a work order in.

So, I did just that. 

The only problem with this is that Stockton does not have maintenance readily available on the weekends, and since my air conditioner decided to break at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday, my three roommates and I had to suffer through the hot and humid weekend without air conditioning in the midst of a major heat wave, even with my RA expediting my work order and me calling the contact number on the maintenance page. None of my calls were met with an answer.

If you recall, this was the weekend from Friday, September 8 through Monday, September 11, and the weather felt like the beginning of August rather than the beginning of September. Temperatures reached the high 80s with astronomical levels of humidity. Before you start thinking “he is being so overdramatic, people didn’t have air conditioning in the 1800s and they were just fine,” while this is true and I agree, I am writing this article not so much for myself as I am for the person that may have asthma or another health or breathing issue that requires them to be in a climate-controlled environment. What would they do if their system went down on a weekend? Would they have to just ride it out until Monday? I also may have not been upset if I hadn’t just moved in five days prior to the air conditioner breaking. 

On Stockton’s own website, there is a PDF file with a long list of Terms and Conditions that the University must meet, and on the center of the first page under “Equipment” it states in part that “parts are all in production and not likely to be discontinued; (iii) that trained mechanics are regularly employed to make necessary repairs to equipment in the territory from which the service request may emanate within a 48-hour period.”

My work order was put in at approximately 5:39 p.m. on Friday, September 9, and my air conditioner was not fixed until early Monday morning. You can look up how much it costs to live in a Housing 5 Apartment. All I will tell you is that it is not cheap, and for the HVAC system to break on the first week of school in my opinion is not acceptable. 

I think a solution lies in having more maintenance workers. According to an online report, Stockton University’s annual revenue is around 153 million dollars per year. I believe a university that makes that much money and has the funds to build waterfront dorms in Atlantic City, could set aside funds to have a small crew of maintenance workers on hand on Saturdays and Sundays to assist with any problems that may arise. After all, the Galloway Campus is made up of older buildings with things that are more likely to break. 

Keep in mind that this article is in no way a slight at Stockton’s amazing maintenance personnel. The second that they were back in operation on Monday morning my unit was fixed. If I would have been able to see them, I would have shaken their hand and said thank you. I just believe with a university as large as Stockton, there should be a seven-day maintenance crew to keep up with the demands that a sprawling college campus has. I am hopeful that in the future the university will be able to allocate sufficient funds to our maintenance department in order for them to maintain a seven-day operation.