The snowstorm which hit DeKalb Thursday was just an annoying nuisance for most NIU students, but for the residents of triple room 586 of Douglas Hall’s D-wing it was a test to see if rain would keep falling on their heads.

On March 22, sophomores Angela Riccelli, Connie Theofanides and Colleen Basner returned to their room to find water streaming down their walls. A leak in the ceiling caused damage to a number of items including the room’s rug, a television and a stereo.

Because of the leak, the room developed an odor all its own, mold grew on the walls and the walls themselves were stained yellow from the steady flow of water.

The room leaked throughout most of the week before apparently

being fixed.

“They must have actually fixed it,” said Riccelli, a journalism and English major.

“But in the future I hope they do things right the first time so other students don’t have to go through what we did,” she said.

The room had leaked earlier in the year, and the residents had been told that it had been fixed.

Thomas Wroblewski, an architect in NIU’s Architect and Engineering Services, said the leak probably was plugged originally with a temporary patch, because it is difficult to fix leaks in the moist winter.

He said the temporary repair is meant to last until the spring or summer when a permanent repair can be done. However, Wroblewski said this time the temporary repair didn’t hold.

He said the university had an independent contractor on the roof March 23 and the contractor came back on that Thursday to work on the roof.

Wroblewski said a more permanent patch was used to plug the hole, and in the spring or summer that section of the roof will be replaced because it has a history of problems.

Even though the leak apparently is fixed, Theofanides, a pre-law major, said she is glad she only has one month left in the residence halls.

The residents will not have to worry about the leak in the ceiling next year because they are moving into the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority house.