Rutgers students say lack of AC is causing them to sleep in dorm lobby
Temperatures have been above 90 degrees for five consecutive days in New Jersey.
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Some Rutgers University freshmen say they have been sleeping in the lobby of their dorms because of the lack of air conditioning during the current heat wave.
“All the dorms are really hot. You can’t really stay in them for too long,” says first-year student Richard Chen.
Freshmen on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus are being advised to bring at least one fan.
“In the beginning, we had like two or three fans set up. We have eight now. It’s not much better,” says student Suhani Mehra.
Temperatures have been above 90 degrees for five consecutive days. Thursday saw a high temperature of 97 degrees – a record-breaker. Students are doing what they can to stay cool.
MORE: News 12 New Jersey Weather Center
“I think the higher floors are much hotter than the lower floors but, in the lounge, they have AC so a lot of us just stay there in the lounge,” says Chen.
One of Rutgers’ resident assistants tells News 12 that she and other students have been piling on a list of complaints to maintenance.
“Only thing I’ve been telling them is, make as many maintenance requests, and hopefully if they see a flood of requests coming in, they’ll take action,” says Palak Mehta.
A parent told News 12 he left work on Thursday to make sure his daughter had a fan. He says that the conditions inside the dorms are unacceptable.
“At least they should try to do something, at least an AC. I think that’s so basic. They can’t even sleep in the night. And obviously, if you don’t have good sleep, your productivity, it affects your college grades,” says Julius Billa.
University officials say the lack of AC in some dorms is due to the buildings’ old age. It is not clear if there are plans to update those buildings.
