Records show that the issue was discussed during an UB employee council meeting. Not all of the rubber window seals were replaced during the renovation, leading to air leakage.
Because much of the remaining seals don’t join up properly with the window frames, the BaOpt climate control system installed at the UB can’t keep up with the resulting temperature differences.
According to RUG spokesperson Jorien Bakker, no students have complained about the issue. ‘But the employees at the UB do experience the issue: they’re either too cold because of the draft, or too warm.’ The employee council records show that people have known about the issue for at least a year.
Trial fix
The UB is executing a trial fix in the department of Special Collections and the Russian Documentation Centre, where the frames will be re-measured and resealed. During the employee council meeting on Wednesday morning, it became clear that the trial fix has already taken place, but results haven’t been announced yet.
If the trial fix does work, the solution will be implemented across the rest of the building. How much the repairs are going to cost and who will pay for them is as yet unclear. Construction company BAM officially stopped being responsible for the upkeep of the UB in January of 2019.
According to the minutes for the employee council meeting dated 12 February, ‘the building has many windows, and a proper solution could be very expensive.’