Air conditioning outages exasperate residents of Commons 1 and 2

Commons 1 and 2 were without air conditioning Tuesday night, and Commons 2 residents were still facing air conditioning issues Wednesday evening, residents and a community assistant said after temperatures soared to 101 degrees during the day.

Abby Widom, a university alum who was staying with a friend in Commons 2 Tuesday night, called the outage "miserable."

"I woke up drenched," she said.

South Campus Commons management could not be reached for comment on the incident Wednesday night.

At the same time some students were left without air conditioning, university officials requested students across the campus conserve energy as air conditioner use throughout the region threatened to overload the electrical grid.

Officials sent out a campus-wide e-mail early Wednesday afternoon asking the university community to conserve energy from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. due to the possibility of brownouts and blackouts caused by a large increase in electricity demand in the area.

An hour after the unversity's e-mail, Commons management followed suit, asking residents to conserve energy by keeping thermostats at 78 degrees, taking shorter showers and unplugging appliances.

Neither e-mail mentioned any issue with the Commons air conditioning.

Vivey Chen, a senior economics and geography major who lives in Commons 2, said she experienced issues with her air conditioner during the last week of June and was not surprised when the problem became more widespread.

Chen called the outage "infuriating" and was most frustrated by the lack of communication Commons management has had with residents about the status of the system. She said she had received no e-mails about the outage from management and no confirmation that it was actually fixed.

Kaitlyn Shulman, a public policy graduate student who lives in Commons 2, echoed Chen's concerns about management's communication with residents.

"I'm just wondering if I should invest in a fan," Shulman said.

Nicole Silva, a senior family science major and the community assistant for Commons 1 and 2 who was on duty Wednesday evening, said she had been informed by other staff members that the air conditioning in both buildings had been fixed Wednesday morning. But, she said, she was still getting calls from residents about air conditioning issues.

In at least some of the cases, students didn't notice their air conditioning had been repaired because they left their vents closed, Silva said. However, some residents were still reporting faulty air conditioning Wednesday night.

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