Although Spring Quarter has been in session for more than two weeks, on-campus air conditioning systems are still not running, leaving students sweating in 80-degree heat.
Facilities Management has not been able to fully switch from heating to cooling yet because nighttime temperatures were still dropping below freezing until last week, said Director of Housing Beverley Wyatt in an email to students living on campus.
If the system were turned on earlier, it would have risked damage from the cold temperatures.
Wyatt asked students to be patient and not to call Facilities Management or send work orders regarding the heat.
“It’s been so hot that our classes actually let out early a couple times,” said Zach Graman, a senior studying sociology and criminology.
Graman said his Bentley Hall classroom was at least 80 degrees and that only one of its three windows can open.
Other students agreed that Bentley is one of the warmest buildings on campus.
“It’s excruciatingly hot,” said Taylor Donofrio, a sophomore studying political science. “We have breaks in every (class) and one of my teachers brought fans in the other day because it was so hot.”
Donofrio said all of her classes have been released early because of heat in the past week.
Each air conditioning system can take between two hours and two days to completely start up, and OU hopes to have them all running by the end of the week, Wyatt said in the email.
“We just can’t sit there for two hours. We can’t learn in that,” said Kristin Yerecic, a freshman studying public relations. “It’s ridiculously hot.”
Wyatt and Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities Management, were unavailable for comment.
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