Well, we are having a cold snap here <was 36*F this morning> and the apartments havent shut down the coolers yet. Only thing in the apartment I could use would be the stove. It is an electric stove. Would it damage it if I used it for occaisional heating? Should I avoid cranking it up to hi? thoughts? I only ask because I have no intention of getting any space heaters right now, and it is only temporary. It always gets cold here, then everybody freaks out and kills their coolers, then it jumps back hot again. I hope they don't get the bright idea to kill the coolers yet

Well, it might be bad on the stove to leave it open and run it. But I bet the safe route would be to heat it up to 400 or so, turn it off, then leave the door open. I personally wouldn't want to leave it open and let it heat, or continuously get it hot and cool off again, it'* probably too much for the hardware to handle.

I am actually referring to the stove top <range i guess would be a technical term>

It probably wouldn't do much good unless you blew a fan across it, and then only if it is the old kind with the exposed metal spiral heating element as opposed to the newer flat kind. It shouldn't hurt anything except your electric bill
I have survived similar situations by using a small cheap electric space heater to only heat one room and hanging blankets in the doorway and over the windows for insulation.