As of 8:53 p.m. on Thursday, heating has been restored to campus and repair work at Central Energy Facility (CEF) has been completed.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the University alerted students to reduced campus heating capacity due to a hot water generator “in need of immediate repair.”  “An urgent maintenance issue at [campus’] Central Energy Facility (CEF) will be affecting the ability to provide heating and hot water across the Stanford campus over the next several days,” wrote the University in a campus-wide announcement. “One of the facility’s three hot water generators is in need of immediate repair.” 

“Specific buildings affected remain fluid as we monitor heat usage and work to address midterms and other campus needs,” wrote Luisa Rapport, director of emergency communications and media relations, in an email to The Daily.

Both Stanford Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) and the University’s alert mention that residences and dining halls will be prioritized at this time but do not guarantee they will remain unimpacted. 

“Although housing and dining facilities are not currently subject to space heat impacts, campus heating systems are interconnected,” R&DE wrote in their message to students.

The heating impact also caused Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center (AOERC) and Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation (ACSR) to close for Thursday. The Avery Rec Pool (ARP) will also remain closed. 

“The pool and gym closure have certainly been tough to hear,” wrote Arin Vansomphone ’28, co-president of Stanford’s club swim team in an email to The Daily. “Missing out on several practice days just a week before a major swim competition (next Saturday) makes it even more of a bummer, but our club remains optimistic and hopeful that the facilities will open soon for us to prepare for our upcoming meet!” 

“Since the University became aware of the problem, Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) has been in close collaboration with our campus partners to understand the potential effects on housing and dining and to determine what actions, if any, we need to take to ensure comfort and continuity of service to students,” wrote Jocelyn Breeland, chief communications and marketing officer for R&DE, in an email to The Daily. 

The heating system is expected to be repaired in two to three days. A message on Thursday afternoon notified campus that “work is underway to address the urgent maintenance issue at our Central Energy Facility.”

Until then, the University urges students to dress warmly to prepare for the temperature drop. Stanford’s campus and the wider Bay Area will be experiencing a cold weather advisory through Friday morning.

The University did not cite a direct cause of the heating impact beyond “a mechanical failure” to the system, and that “one of the facility’s three hot water generators is in need of immediate repair.” This issue comes just a day after a storm-inflicted power outage swept campus. The outage on Tuesday led to canceled classes and midterms for students, alongside elevator failures.

As a consequence of Wednesday’s heating issues, some classes were held virtually instead of in person at buildings like Margaret Jacks Hall and Sweet Hall. 

“My only class that was directly impacted [by the heating] was linguistics, which got moved online,” Nandita Talluri ’29 wrote in a message to The Daily. “But on Tuesday, my Spanish class was cancelled in the morning before the power came back.”

In a follow-up email on Wednesday night, R&DE informed students  that “classrooms and other non-residential buildings may experience significantly cooler temperatures.”

“To stabilize the campus heating system, the campus will begin shutting off space heat to many non-R&DE facilities,” R&DE wrote in their campus-wide message. 

R&DE recommends students keep windows shut and limit hot water use before the heating issue is resolved. They also ask students to refrain from using personal heating devices like space heaters due to the potential fire hazard. 

Updates on the changing status of the heating impact are available at https://emergency.stanford.edu.