By EMILY PAOLICELLI
Contributing Writer
Saint Rose endured a heat wave so hot that Residence Life offered alternative sleeping arrangements to help residents escape their sweltering dorms at night last week. However, not many students took advantage of this offer, and opted to beat the heat by themselves instead.
Residence Life responded to students’ requests for relief from the heat of the dorms, opening up the air-conditioned Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium in the Events and Athletics Center to students who felt their rooms were too hot to comfortably sleep in.
In an email sent out to students from Residence Life, it was announced that the gymnasium would be an option for students to stay Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights as soon as it became available. A few ground rules were set, including regulations on footwear, food and drink, what bedding was and wasn’t allowed, and what school policies would be enforced.
Despite Residence Life doing so much to accommodate students’ requests, not many people used these sleeping arrangements.
“Only one student opted to sleep in the gym since Sunday night,” said Jennifer Richardson, Director of Residence Life.
The heat wave lasted from Sunday Sept. 2 through Thursday Sept. 6, reaching the highest temperature of 94 degrees on Monday. Most of the dorms at Saint Rose don’t have air conditioning, with the exceptions of Centennial, Alumni, and Riley/Carondelet/Cavanaugh (RCC) Halls.
According to the National Weather Service, this week’s weather will start out with being in the low 50s, but temperatures are again expected to climb into the 80s. There will be a reprieve from the heat from last week.
Because of this the dorms on campus have been getting uncomfortably hot during the day and haven’t been improving much at night, despite cooler nighttime temperatures outside.
“It’s basically 15 degrees hotter inside than it is outside,” said Chris Weiss, a sophomore living in a house on Madison Avenue. “We have three fans and it still doesn’t really do much.”
Students seemed hesitant to sleep in the gym for a couple reasons; a big one being that they didn’t want to wake up before eight in the morning.
“You will need to be up each morning and leave the gym by 8 a.m. to allow time for Facilities to complete their cleaning and have the gym ready for the day,” specified the original email sent to residents from Richardson.
“What I’ve been told by a lot of my friends, because we were planning on actually going, was that you had to wake up at eight and be completely moved out of the gym,” said Weiss. “I think that was the biggest turn-off to the idea.”
Students also expressed discomfort with the idea of sleeping in a room full of people they may not know very well.
“One of the biggest factors was the idea that people don’t feel comfortable sleeping around other people, especially when it’s not their roommate or their friends,” said Weiss.
Saint Rose students have dealt with this type of heat before. In September 2017, there was a short heat wave, similar in length to the one last week, with temperatures reaching up to 91 degrees; in fact, according to US Climate Data, Albany has consistently seen September temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s for the past 10 years, and it’s likely that this won’t be the last year that it happens, either.
“We have let students know that they could stay with friends in Alumni, Centennial, and Riley/Carondelet/Cavanaugh Halls,” said Richardson. “They could stay with a friend off-campus or they can remain in their rooms and use fans.”
