During the first two weeks of classes at Wayne State College, students experienced extreme temperatures impacting their on-campus living.
With Morey and Berry Halls having no air conditioning and temperatures rising up to the triple digits, the residents’ living conditions were disrupted. Residents in Morey and Berry, mainly freshmen with a handful of them being upperclassmen, were surprised by the terms of their living conditions within their first couple weeks on campus.
Corbin Kinney and Caden Chadek, both freshmen and residents of Morey Hall, spent more time outside their rooms than inside of their rooms. Both claim they were hardly ever in their residence hall.
“Basically it was get up in the morning, get everything you need for the day and get out as soon as possible,” Kinney said.
“It felt like a homeless shelter,” Chadek said. “For the last couple of weeks, if you wanted a decent sleep at night, you were homeless.”
The lobby of Morey was open for residents to sleep in at night, which 30-40 residents took advantage of. However, this came with consequences of people fighting for a spot in the air-conditioned lobby.
“It was first come first serve for spots,” Kinney said. “There were a couple of nights people were up until 1:30 a.m. and we had classes at 9 a.m.”
Even though Kinney and Chadek are freshman, and haven’t lived on campus for very long, the extreme heat in their hall has already influenced them to find somewhere else to live. Both Kinney and Chadek have plans to try to find another residence hall to live in next semester, and if they’re not lucky, they won’t be spending much time in Morey for the remainder of the school year.
Some of the resident assistants, or RAs, in Morey were concerned about how the freshman and other students living there would be coping with the heat. Even though they were equally as shocked at how high the temperatures rose, they had to keep their cool, literally and figuratively, so the residents wouldn’t panic.
Kaylah Henson was one who focused on keeping her cool around the residents.
“If they see us acting like we can’t live like this, then they’re going to think, ‘If the RAs can’t do this, what are we going to do?’” Henson said.
Blake Bodlak, a senior, bluntly stated how he felt during those first few weeks.
“I felt hot,” Bodlak said. “I was worried that people were going to be like, ‘College isn’t for me because it’s so hot here and it must be like this all the time.’”
Bodlak wasn’t the only RA who expressed his worries. Catarina Siravo claimed she was also worried about students immediately not liking college just because they have no air conditioning in their dorm.
“During the day you’d come down and there’d be so many people in the lobby because no one wanted to be in their room,” Siravo said. On the flip side of this, having no air conditioning in the dorm rooms came with a positive effect. “It definitely helped everyone meet each other because they had nowhere else to go,” Siravo said.
To help keep cool during this time, Jillian Grantham suggests using ice packs. If one doesn’t have any ice packs, use frozen paper towels.
“I didn’t want to go out and buy ice packs, so I would get paper towels wet and freeze them and use them to cool off,” Grantham said. She further explains other solutions to keeping cool that she suggests to the residents of Morey Hall.
“Take a cold shower or rinse before you get into bed and close the blinds during the day,” Grantham said. “With fans, even air movement on you makes you feel cooler.”
