Newspaper fans, trash cans full of water bottles and that lingering body-odor smell from hundreds of sweaty bodies can only add up to one thing.
Overly hot buildings on campus.
As long as I’ve been attending IU Southeast, the buildings are always too hot or too cold, and I still fail to see a good reason why this cannot be fixed.
I realize that somewhere near the time when spring officially starts, the air conditioning will magically return to campus, but, until then, we are stuck with the heat.
Does that make sense? I didn’t think so.
If you’re at home, you adjust the heat or air conditioning to match a comfort level you prefer.
Leaving the choice of when to turn the hot and cold air on to the calendar of seasons is ridiculous.
This is the Ohio Valley.
This is the place weird weather loves to visit.
Maybe you remember that ice storm and the hurricane?
However, leaving the heat on in buildings when it’s beautiful outside and not regulating it to a normal or comfortable temperature is bad.
I can think of at least four good reasons why.
The first is that the odor starts wafting out the doors and will soon permeate the entire campus.
The recent temps have made every building smell like a dirty locker room or, at best, the Game Room.
Buildings with computer labs are the worst.
B.O. is just distracting, gross and too much of it can institute a gag reflex.
Next, overly hot and overly cold rooms do not provide a good learning, or productive, environment for students and faculty.
Unless you’re from Bermuda and love working in sweltering temperatures, you’re not going to be able to concentrate very well on anything.
Scientists have done numerous studies on how to have the right temperature for optimum productivity.
The results are always between 72 and 77 degrees. Anything above or below those temps and productivity goes down.
What about health concerns?
People can overheat, pass out, and just get sick from being in a hot room too long.
I know the campus does not have a licensed medical facility on the premises, and the only medical assistance comes from the police at the moment.
You’d think that with the dorms on campus, in addition to the commuter students, it would be a good idea to consider getting a small facility for medical issues.
Last, I have to wonder what the heating bill looks like when it’s gorgeous outside and the Gobi desert inside.
It seems to me that it would be a good idea to moderate the temperatures in buildings according to a weekly weather report.
There has to be a better way of regulating the temperatures across campus. My theory and method of fixing it is simple.
If the temperatures are going up outside, turn them down inside.
By GRACE STAMPER
Editor
gstamper@umail.iu.edu
