SMC during a heat wave
It is the third week of fall semester at Santa Monica College and with September being the hottest month in Los Angeles, many students are resourcing to ice-cold drinks, air conditioning and refreshing shade under the trees. We are half way through the year 2014 and it isn’t getting any cooler—not outside and for some SMC students, not in the classrooms either.
“It’s too hot to even concentrate on what the teacher is saying because I’m sitting on my chair thinking ‘oh my God can I leave?’” said SMC student Gulya Mansurova.
Santa Monica is in general cooler than the cities farther from the beach.
Students coming from the San Fernando valley or West Los Angeles rely on the cool breeze from the beach of Santa Monica but according to SMC student Fara Mansurova it is not any cooler here.
“It’s just as hot and with the classrooms not having functioning air conditioner it makes it worse to bear,” Mansurova said.
“I’m sitting in class thinking ‘eww I’m sweating, eww I’m sweating,’” SMC student Gulya Mansurova said.
According to Gregory Brown, facility manager at SMC, there are a few buildings from the 1950's on campus that do not include air conditioning.
These buildings include the Liberal Arts, Letter’s and Science, the Gym and Locker building and portions of the Art building.
“There are long term plans to replace many of those buildings so there is no investment being planned for air conditioning in any of the buildings except the Cayton Center where the Associated Students have asked us to study the feasibility of adding air conditioning,” Brown said
“HSS was originally designed to utilize natural ventilation. But due to the warmer weather and more students in each classroom during peak periods, natural ventilation is not working,” Brown said.
According to Brown they have plans to install air conditioning in the HSS building but it is not schedule to be completed until 2016.
Fall semester at Santa Monica College has always been packed with students trying to crash courses that in return cause the classrooms to overheat.
“Unfortunately, the warmest weather in Santa Monica usually occurs right when fall classes start and we have a high number of students in each classroom, which makes the rooms feel even hotter,” Brown said.
SMC student Suleymi Amaya thinks it's unacceptable that both the students and teachers must tolerate the heat in class.
“I really hope the school does something about this because it doesn’t look like it’s going to get cooler any time soon,” Amaya said.
September has been a hot, humid, and sweaty month for SMC students and many are waiting for the school government to act and improve the environment in the classrooms.
“I really hope they fix the air conditioners in classrooms because there’s still next fall semester and I really do not want to be sitting in a hot air bubble again,” said Amaya.