On campus, many classrooms lack air conditioning, and the gap showed during the recent heat wave.
Benjamin Solano, an environmental engineering junior, sweated through class and struggled to focus.
Many professors canceled classes or moved sessions to Zoom for the remainder of the week. In the dorms, the heat never broke overnight.
San Luis Obispo hit 107 degrees on Sept. 9, the hottest day of 2026, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Santa Lucia winds and moisture from Tropical Storm Marie drove the extreme heat.
The heat wave followed the hottest August, hottest summer and hottest year to date in U.S. history, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. It exposed how many Cal Poly buildings lack air conditioning. It also fits a “warming trend” that will keep hitting campus, said Geoffrey Andrew Fricker, a Cal Poly geography professor.
“As the years have gone by, obviously the heat’s just gotten worse and worse,”
Benjamin Solano, environmental engineering junior
“All the extreme heat days, this is all kind of embedded within the general trend of the climate changing,” Fricker said. “Next year may not be hotter than this, but a year or two after that, it will be.”
Solano, who has lived in San Luis Obispo for three years, has noticed the same pattern.
“As the years have gone by, obviously the heat’s just gotten worse and worse,” he said.
Fricker said Santa Lucia winds blow from the northeast instead of off the ocean, pushed by high pressure sitting over land. That compresses the air and heats it.
Ella Vowell, a plant sciences sophomore, lives in Poly Canyon Village, which has no air conditioning. One morning during the heat wave, she woke up to an 85-degree apartment.
“Overnight, it did not cool off at all,” Vowell said. “I slept with an ice pack.”
Alina Arroyo, a business administration sophomore, works as a resident advisor on the third floor of a red brick residence hall.
“I woke up that morning, and I was drenched in sweat, and it was really gross,” Arroyo said.
Arroyo and her fellow RAs organized a last-minute ice cream event to help residents cool down.
Kai Fries, a sociology junior, commutes from Morro Bay in a car with no working air conditioning. Her first class that Monday also had no air conditioning, and the sun shone directly into the room. By her second class, she sat in the back row, visibly struggling, she said.
“My professor gave me an ice pack from her lunchbox because I looked like I was about to pass out,” Fries said.
The rest of Fries’ classes were canceled or moved online for the week.
Fricker said the gap in air conditioning is a product of the region’s history.
“Cal Poly has just been historically blessed with a nice climate. We just didn’t need air conditioning that bad. That has to change,” he said. “Cal Poly is going to need to start installing some air conditioning.”
The fix will be expensive, Fricker said, and administrators will have to choose which buildings to prioritize.
Arroyo said Cal Poly needs to run air conditioning during heat waves.
“It’s really dangerous to be out in a heat wave like that,” Arroyo said. “People are sensitive to it.”
The university has no campuswide project to install air conditioning in every classroom or residence hall, according to Cal Poly Spokesperson Keegan Koberl.
Retrofitting older buildings often means new electrical service, ventilation and building controls, along with upgrades to the campus utility system itself. The university weighs cooling when it builds new facilities or takes on major renovations, Koberl said.
The recent Kennedy Library renovation added a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system with cooling throughout the buildings, along with new classrooms.
Some other buildings already have full or partial cooling, and a handful of individual rooms have air conditioning even when the rest of the building does not.
Cal Poly’s student housing program will bring new residence halls and phased renovations to the red brick residence halls, Koberl said. New buildings are set to open between fall 2026 and 2032, and infrastructure work on the South Mountain halls could begin in 2027 or 2028. Each phase gets its own mechanical system evaluation during design, he said.
Korbel did not disclose a completion date for any of these projects, but funding, individual project timelines and construction schedules all factor in, he said.
Planners also weigh a building’s expected use, its electrical capacity, energy efficiency, upkeep costs and building standards.
Cal Poly is also considering an upgrade to its central plant, which Koberl said would boost cooling capacity across campus. He called the project a high priority but did not provide a timeline.
“My professor gave me an ice pack from her lunch box because I looked like I was about to pass out,”
Kai Fries, sociology junior
Koberl said that the university monitors National Weather Service forecasts and issues precautions and alerts to the campus when necessary, as they did during the recent heat wave. He pointed students toward cooled spaces where they can work, study or rest, including the Kennedy Library, the University Union and the Recreation Center.
Fries believes that Cal Poly should move classes online whenever the county issues a heat advisory, as it did during the pandemic.
“We know we have the tools and ability to be able to do that,” Fries said.
While students push for immediate fixes, Cal Poly is more focused on longer-term sustainability goals.
The university signed the Second Nature Climate Leadership Commitment in 2016 and has committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to its sustainability office.
The 4.5-megawatt Gold Tree Solar Farm on campus generates nearly 25% of campus electricity, and Cal Poly calls it the largest solar installation in the Cal State system. The university also says it has cut water use by 31% since 2013, five years ahead of the Cal State mandate.
Fricker said the timeline could shift with student pressure.
“Students do have a voice and can actually push things through,” he said.
Ella Ankney, an art and design senior, sees a gap in how Cal Poly teaches sustainability.
“It might be nice if there was more sustainability education in major-related courses,” Ankney said. “Sustainable design is a big thing right now in the industry.”
She said the university should also teach waste-sorting practices to new students so everyone knows the rules.
“Educating students right when they get here so that maybe it’s a little more ingrained in them,” Ankney said.
Ankney said students pick the sustainable option when Cal Poly makes it free and easy. She pointed to the reusable cups at Julian’s and the tumblers with soda refills the university gives new students.
She said she has watched the campus make progress since her first year.
“There’s definitely some differences in how they’re managing the waste,” she said.
Ankney said students can help through small everyday choices, like sorting their trash correctly, buying secondhand clothes or following Green Campus’ Green Living guide.
“Everything you do, really, as small as it sounds does make a difference,” she said.
Fricker agreed. Change takes young people who care, he said, and young people who vote.
“It’s not like we can’t fix this thing. We can,” Fricker said.