Extremely high temperatures in San Luis Obispo caused one student to faint in class on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
University spokesperson Keegan Koberl confirmed to Mustang News that only one student was reported to have fainted due to the heatwave.
However, other students still struggled in the heat, due to many of Cal Poly’s classrooms and residence halls lacking air conditioning. Some professors moved their classes to online formats. However, in-person classes were never formally canceled by Cal Poly.
Cal Poly sent a Poly Alert during the heat wave, advising students to stay hydrated, take breaks and use cooler indoor areas. Koberl said that if students are “experiencing heat-related symptoms, move to a cooler place and contact Campus Health and Wellbeing for assistance.”
Anikah Sanders, english junior, explained that while most of her classes were moved online, one still met on campus during the heatwave.
“My professor started class by acknowledging the heat and saying we could ‘step out if need be,’ and lectured all the way until (the end of class),” Sanders said.
The classroom, located in Engineering West (Bldg. 21), does not have air conditioning and is “already hot on a regular day,” according to Sanders. The windows were slightly open, but did little to help with the heat since the doors to the classroom were shut.
“With the heat wave, everyone was miserable,” Sanders said. “Everyone spent class fanning themselves and at least one person stepped out.”
In addition to students having class in the heat, some students had to work in hot buildings. Remi Licona, marine science junior, works in Cal Poly’s Vertebrate Integrative Physiology lab on the sea otter team. While some of their shifts are off campus, all of their work has required in-person attendance.
During the heat wave, Licona had a volunteer shift with their lab in which they moved equipment between rooms in Fisher Science. The room they were in had no noticeable air conditioning, or it “was very weak” compared to the air conditioning in the hallway, Licona said.
According to Cal Poly, Fisher Science has partial air conditioning. Only 20 total buildings on this list have full air conditioning.
“It was very uncomfortable because the room is already warm on a relatively warm day, so the heat made it much worse,” Licona said. “I also had to stop multiple times because of how tired the heat made me, and we ended up leaving early because of the heat.”
When Licona and their coworker left the building, it was “cooler outside than in the building.”
Other buildings had similar or worse conditions, such as Erhart Agriculture (Bldg. 10), according to Nico Campbell, experience and industry management junior. In Campbell’s in-person class, the classroom felt like it had a higher temperature than the hallway, with students attempting to get water but the nearest water fountain being broken. Campbell said that his club activities were in air-conditioned buildings, or later in the day so they were only “mildly humid” compared to earlier classes.
“I still had to do activities while taking the shortest route possible, walking through air-conditioned buildings, or using up car gas so that I wouldn’t overheat. It required more of an effort than usual,” Campbell said.
