Published on Monday, May 5, 2008

Energy wasted on air conditioning

By LETTER WRITER

NIU, turn off the air and save some energy spring time is always the most difficult time for students. The weather finally starts getting nice right around the finals and studying becomes more difficult.

In order to escape the ever encapsulating gaze of the TV, I have left my home to work on a huge final paper in my office on campus, which as a TA, I am lucky to have access to.

However, there is a problem on campus that hits us every year; the problem of excess temperature control. It is 60 degrees outside as I write this, and air vents are continuously blowing frigid air at my back as I try to work. And the worst part? I’m spending so much time thinking about being cold that I’ve barely gotten any work done.

Is it so much to ask to have vents that may be closed, or air that can be turned off, in any given room? How much energy and money is wasted by using air conditioning on cold days? Should it really be necessary to carry jackets to classes and offices in May? I understand that coordinating temperatures across campus is a big job and may be too complicated for each room to have individual temperature control, but why can’t we have some 18th century technology of vents that close and open?

It’s bad enough that I’m stuck inside, writing a final paper on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but it is cruel that students, faculty and staff alike have to store up motivation for giving up the sun for a room held at a temperature more fit for Eskimos than Midwesterners.

Kristin Lou Herout
Graduate student, communication major

Editor’s note : Kristin Lou Herout is a former Northern Star photographer and Flavor writer