As the temperatures fall below freezing going into the weekend, a group of students at Duquesne University has grown frustrated with the lack of heat in their apartment.

Allison Simonetta, a senior nursing major at Duquesne, said the issues began last winter, when the heat in her apartment in McGinley Hall, located on Forbes Avenue, stopped working. McGinley Hall opened in the fall of 2014.

"We noticed that our HVAC system was making a lot of weird sounds. It was freezing cold in my roommate's room, which has the unit in her room," Simonetta said Friday. "It was freezing cold in my roommate's room, which has the unit in her room."

Simonetta said she called maintenance and put in multiple requests, and maintenance workers were sent to look at the unit. It was frozen over, and despite efforts to defrost it, the problem wasn't fixed.

"They would come out with a hair dryer and a Phillips head screwdriver and chip away the ice on our unit, and then they would have to keep coming to do that to fix it," she said.

"We were eventually told that we were just females, we had no clue what we were talking about, and he said that if he were to get higher up people involved, his bonus would be taken away," Simonetta said. 

After multiple exchanges with Lumina Properties, the company partnered with Duquesne to manage the building, Simonetta was eventually offered another apartment and moved out of the building during the spring semester of 2025. She then moved back into the old apartment before the fall, after she was told the HVAC had been fixed. But then, in late November, when the temperatures began to fall, Simonetta said the heat never turned on.

"They gave us portable heaters, one per room, she said. "And I was told that I am supposed to bring the heater to other rooms."

"Over the weekend, I usually have to come home [to Crawford County], and I live about an hour and 20 minutes north, so it's not a close drive, but it's not super far."

KDKA reached out to the university for comment, and a spokesperson said: "We recognize the impact this heating issue has had on the students in the affected apartment and appreciate their concerns. Duquesne University is working closely with our partner, Lumina Properties, which is responsible for managing the apartment, to understand what happened and ensure the problem is resolved quickly. 

"We expect Lumina to take the necessary steps to provide a safe and comfortable space for the affected students. Alternative housing has been provided until Lumina rectifies the heating situation."

Simonetta said she is annoyed and frustrated because she feels they are not doing enough to help them.

"For the amount of money I'm paying to stay here, they won't even reimburse or anything, or even give a discount for anything," she said.

Lumina's offices are closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but will reopen on Tuesday. Lumina has arranged for another maintenance worker to visit the apartment on Tuesday, and Duquesne has offered the roommates temporary housing for the weekend.