On Feb. 7, Student Affairs sent out an email informing students of the precautionary boil order notice that the City of Naperville issued. The email states that it was a local domestic water service break. As a result, all tap water used for drinking or cooking should be boiled for five minutes before consumption. However, water was still safe for bathing and other purposes.
The next day, on Feb. 8, the city sampled the water and lifted the restrictions. On Feb. 14, students were notified that parts of the south side of campus received a boil order notice.
Places of impact
The places of impact by the boil order notice on Feb. 8 on the north side of campus were Harold and Eva White Activities Center, Boilerhouse Café, Carnegie Hall, School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Goldspohn Hall, Larrance Academic Center, Oesterle Library, Kiekhofer Hall, 225 N. Loomis House, Kimmel Hall and Seybert Hall.
On Feb. 14 the places of impact included Kaufman Dining Hall, Geiger Hall, Rall Hall, Oliver Hall (WONC), 224 E. Chicago Ave and 329 S. Brainard St. (Rall House).
Student perspective
Students both on and off-campus have a variety experiences with the notice, some being residence halls.
“The whole thing was just weird, especially since there were two of them on different ends of campus so close together. I felt especially bad for the first year dorms because they didn’t have access to water for almost two days,” said Jules Billings, ’24.
Another student, Paige Runkle, ’25, comments on the situation. She is a first-year student living in Rall, one of the freshman residence halls impacted on campus.
“My biggest complaint was that we couldn’t use the toilets. That was the worst part and a bunch of girls was taking field trips to went to go use the bathroom. And then everyone was using the showers in Res/Rec so we were playing music and trying to have fun while we were being inconvenienced,” said Runkle.
More information can be found on the City of Naperville’s official website.
