Sister Thea Bowman Hall

Sister Thea receives scheduled housekeeping services Sunday through Friday from 6 a.m.-2 p.m and regular spot-checking occurs throughout the weekend. These services extend to the residence hall’s hallways, bathrooms and common areas. Because this is a new building, our housekeeping staff is adapting to cleaning the space while it is occupied. Though each bathroom is cleaned once a day, we will be fine tuning the specific cleaning schedule as we learn more about what is needed and when.If students are experiencing an absence of service in these areas, they are encouraged to continue reporting any problems through Asset Essentials to ensure they are addressed as quickly as possible.

Students throughout campus are expected to clean their own rooms. This includes taking out their own trash by bringing it to trash rooms located on each residential floor. Keeping your living space clean and tidy is part of our students’ independent living experience and assists in keeping our living environments clear of pests. 

As communicated, elevators 3 and 4 are expected to be online during the week of September 22. Students can continue to use the primary elevator bank in the lobby near the front desk, as well as the primary stairwell from the lobby to floors throughout the building. All other stairwells in the building are for emergency exit only. The doors to these secondary stairwells will alarm when opened.

Floor-level tap access is nearly complete in the primary stairwell and the primary elevator bank. When this is enabled, students will need to tap their SJU ID Card to access their floor. Students will have tap access to their assigned floor only. Notification will be shared with all residents when this feature is enabled and active.

Students will now hear a buzzer sound when they successfully tap to enter the building. 

Only residents of Sister Thea Bowman Hall have ID card tap access to the building and its amenities. Students are reminded to tap their card at the building main entrance doors, and again at the front desk tap reader. (Hint: take your ID card out of your wallet for an easier read!) These security measures help us keep the building safe and secure. Residents who wish to have guests must follow the University guest policies and sign in guests at the front desk. Guests will receive a guest pass that is specific for Sister Thea Bowman Hall. As work continues in the building, floor level access will change for students. We will continue to provide updates about these changes when they go into effect. 

Over the next two weeks, devices to ensure broader and stronger wireless coverage are being installed throughout the building. Installations will begin early next week; students can expect technicians to visit their rooms between approximately 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. each day. Students do not need to be present for this work to occur. However, to prepare, please remove any personal items in front of your data jack. Two technicians will be assigned to each room, and the installation is expected to take approximately 15 minutes. Thank you for your cooperation and patience as we work to enhance wireless reliability in the building.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work to improve network coverage for everyone. To report dead zones, please contact the Technology Service Center at 610-660-2920 or request service. 

As is the case in any building, running too many appliances at once will cause electrical circuits to trip. Most frequently, this has been caused by hairdryers and Keurigs in residential rooms. Each room has two circuits with three outlets each — one on the left side and one on the right side. More evenly distributing appliances in the room, as well as being mindful of running more than one appliance at once, will help balance the electrical load being placed on individual outlets. Additionally, students are strongly encouraged to use hair dryers in the common bathrooms, as these locations were specifically designed for a higher electrical draw. 

Cooling set points are set universally across the building at 72 degrees — in the winter months for heating, it is 68 degrees. By using the thermostat in each room, individuals may adjust that temperature within +/- 3 degrees of this set point. HVAC units will not adjust beyond +/- 3 degrees of the set point regardless of what the user sets the thermostat at. 

Recently, we experienced a blockage in one of the sewer lines. Nothing besides toilet paper should be flushed down the toilets across our Hawk Hill campus. This means wipes, feminine products, paper towels, etc. should never go down the toilet. Housekeeping has been notified that emptying feminine product receptacles is a high priority.

Study rooms throughout the building are available to you but the door hardware remains a work in progress. Feel free to use these spaces!

Asset Essentials is the Work Request system utilized by the SJU Facilities & Housekeeping Teams. When you submit a work request through this system, you will be able to see the status of your request as well as any notes or resolution related to the request. If you have submitted a request, you do not need to be present in your room when the staff members respond to address the work request - the staff member will update the work request in the Asset Essentials system and will often leave a door hanger on your door with a note of what was completed. Submitting a work order helps you receive the fastest resolution to any facilities issues you encounter, and helps the University track any building-wide trends.

We are close to completing the programming kitchen, located on the ground floor of the building. The kitchen will be available to all residents of Sister Thea Bowman Hall and is intended to be used by students and staff as a programming and event space. Students and RAs will be able to utilize this space for the preparation of snacks or other foods for programmatic and community gathering opportunities. This kitchen is not to be used for daily meal preparation. The kitchen will not be supplied with cooking equipment, so students wishing to use the space should provide their own. Additionally, students are responsible for cleaning the kitchen following its use.

The alarm and signal system at Sister Thea is complex and integrates with multiple communications systems, not only within the University’s ecosystem but with regional emergency services. Certain sensors and relays have required reprogramming as they have come online. The University’s operations team is working diligently to update and refine the mechanics of the alarm and signaling systems to eliminate the occurrence of false alarms. Additional technical staff are present in Sr. Thea until the issue is resolved.

We understand that continuous alarms are disruptive. With that said, please never assume an alarm is going off in error unless you have been notified that a drill is occurring. Each and every call for an evacuation should be treated as a true emergency and instructions to vacate the premises should be followed.