South Campus residence hall Sheldon Court has been out of hot water since early Monday following a boiler malfunction, leaving residents unable to shower at the dorm.
Building staff are currently waiting on a specialized part to arrive and were unable to provide a timeline for repairs in their most recent communication to students.
According to a statement from Cornell Housing and Residential Life, the office anticipates the issue to be resolved before the weekend.
Depending on what floor they live on, residents have been asked to shower at corresponding floors in Cascadilla Hall, a separate hall divided from Sheldon Court by the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts and a parking garage. Residents received guidance and information about the outage early Monday morning — the first day of classes of the academic year.
Residential staff also recommended the locker room showers at Noyes, a fitness center that is a ten to fifteen-minute walk from the dormitory under maintenance.
The outage has lasted throughout the first week of classes for Cornell students, which, for Isabel Macedo ’26, adds unnecessary hassle to an already busy time.
“It’s already stressful enough to navigate the first week of classes, figuring out your schedule and getting into a new routine,” Macedo said. “To get home and know that a shower isn’t an easy option — unless I want to be in freezing cold water or have to walk to Cascadilla — it just feels like basic living amenities aren’t accessible, especially with the University’s food situation right now.”
The outage occurred amid a campus-wide strike by United Auto Workers Local 2300, who make up approximately 1,200 of Cornell’s food, maintenance and facility workers — a strike that could potentially end on Sept. 3 if a temporary agreement is ratified in a vote over the weekend.
As the University and UAW bargained over move-in week and the first few days of classes, students experienced a lack of food availability on campus and a decline in cleanliness in residence halls. It is unclear whether the hot water outage in Sheldon Court has been extended due to the strike.
According to Abby Bates ’26, who lives in Sheldon Court, the outage is a nuisance during the first week of classes, especially when the alternative options are so far from where she lives.
“It’s really just an inconvenience,” Bates said. “Like I would not want to go to West [Campus] to shower — no thank you.”
Bates, who has friends who live in apartments in the area that she can rely on for hot water, has not made the trek to Cascadilla or Noyes.
Several Sheldon residents have passed on alternatives altogether, instead opting to brave the cold water.
Housing and Residential Life told The Sun that residents were promptly informed of the problem on Monday and that staff are quickly working to solve the outage.