Cold showers, anyone? Some USF on-campus residents have been having trouble accessing hot water in their residence halls for a week now.

Holly, Argos, Maple and Cypress are the affected residential communities, according to Andy Johnson, housing director for operations and outreach.

USF Housing sent out an email to around 2,400 student residents on Feb. 16 advising students to bring their USF ID and towels to the Campus Recreation Center or The FIT in case they wanted an alternative hot shower location.

The boiler that supplies hot water to these buildings malfunctioned Feb. 15, USF spokesperson Aaron Nichols said. Temporary boilers started being installed on that same day.

New permanent boilers will be installed in the future to upgrade the hot water system and ensure similar issues don’t happen again, Nichols said. 

Isabella Bosch, a sophomore health sciences major who lives in Holly, said she understands USF Housing was trying to be helpful with the alternative hot shower advice. However, she didn’t think it was a practical solution.

“I would rather shower with cold water in my dorm than walk 15 minutes to the gym just for a hot shower,” Bosch said.

Ishani Gutta, a freshman biology major, said she is glad her residence hall Magnolia wasn’t affected by the hot water shortage because she has anemia and needs to have hot showers.

“If I took a cold shower, I would get even colder and pass out,” Gutta said. “The lack of hot water could be really inconvenient for people with disabilities.”

Nichols explained that hot water produced by boilers is also used to supply heat to buildings through a system of underground pipes.

Due to the use of boilers for heat, the facilities team is reducing temperatures in office and administrative spaces to send hot water back to residence halls, Nichols said.

This means that some locations on campus might be a little colder in order for student residents to receive hot water. This measure will be in place until permanent boilers are installed.

An email update was sent by USF Facilities Management on Wednesday, apologizing for the inconvenience. The email said facilities is working “as quickly as possible” to resolve the issue. 

USF Housing will continue to send student residents updates on the progress of repairs, the email read.

Bosch said the process of resolving the issue has taken longer than she expected despite what the last email update said.

“I just want to have nice steamy showers and not have to worry about freezing the whole time,” Bosch said.