Almost one year later residents at Jones Graduate Tower finally can feel relieved about their living conditions for spring and shouldn’t feel terrified about having to survive an entire day without water.”The problems have apparently been looked into and things are substantially better now,” said Brian Rivera, president of the Jones Tower Executive Council.Jones Tower Executive Council is the official student governing body of Jones Graduate Tower, a residence hall housing almost 500 graduate students on north campus. The Council was formed as a liaison between the residents and building management and is intended to voice the concerns of the residents to the university.”Except for some minor complications, the water situation has been alleviated,” Rivera said.The water problems in Jones Tower spouted last spring because of frequent flooding on the 13th floor when washing machines on the 14th floor were used. As a result of the plumbing replacement project,maintenance had to shut down water in the entire building.Since then, the university has spent $150,000 on replacing the old galvanized water pipes with new copper pipes, said Jose Cueto, director of residential property management and facilities planning at Housing, Food Services and Event Centers. Cueto said an isolation valve was also installed to separate particular areas of the building in case of a leak.According to the Jones Tower Executive Council, in addition to the water problem, there were other issuesthat caused major inconveniences to the students:• Roaches were prevalent in the building and spraying efforts were not adequate.• The elevators were constantly breaking down, averaging at least one per weekend.• The air-conditioning system only worked intermittently. Since then the university has paid particular attention to improving the living conditions in Jones Tower. In addition to the plumbing project completed last summer, Housing and Food Services is planning to spend another half million dollars on modernizing the elevators. Cueto said that the new elevators would be computerized, more efficient and easier to use for students with disabilities. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2000. Renovation of the ventilating system is also coming, Cueto said. “We are experimenting with different versions of devices on the 13th floor that allow students to control the temperature of their own rooms,” he said.The current air-conditioning and heating system in Jones Tower doesn’t give residents control over their room temperature.Cueto said Housing and Food Service plan to furnish the building with new carpets, which would cost around $2 million.Rivera said that efforts by Valerie Shafer, director of information system and services at Housing, Food Services and Event Centers, to renovate the computer lab in Jones Tower were a success.”She initiated phone calls and asked for advice from the council to find out problems about the lab in Jones Tower,” Rivera said. “The result was fantastic.”Presently, the Jones Tower computer lab is equipped with a laser printer, five PCs and three Macintosh computers. Seven of the computers are connected to the Internet.Rivera admitted that there could have been less confrontation last year if there had been more forthright communication between the university and students.”If there is more of an air of cooperation and working together rather than confrontation from both sides, there is a great deal more than can be accomplished,” he said.However, Steve Kremer, director of Residence Life, said that there was no evidence last year that the university was ignoring the students’ needs. “The university worked very hard to communicate with the students,” he said. “Their legitimate concerns were getting addressed.”He also doesn’t agree that there was a breakdown of communication between Jones Tower’s residents and the university. Kremer said that even if there had been misunderstandings, the partnership between the university and the graduate students has been re-established, and Jones Tower will continue to be one of the best examples of a great community on campus.