Lacking building wide air conditioning in several dorms around campus, some PSU students face prolonged heat exposure. Experts say this can lead to physical harm—even in young and healthy individuals. This year, an update to PSU’s Housing and Residence Life (UHRL) policies was aimed to fix that.
In June, several students gathered in the lounge at the bottom of Montgomery Hall to discuss an approaching heat wave. They recalled living in the dorms in previous summers and the routines they employed to combat the heat.
PSU Student Abby Coder said she would close the windows and curtains each morning and brace for a hot, unpleasant day. When the heat became too much to bear in her dorm room, she would flee to the only air conditioned room in Montgomery, the communal space on the first floor.
“I had my cat and I was holding her up to the AC to try to cool her down,” Coder said.
PSU Student Garrison Christian also remembered a heat wave while he lived on campus last summer. He said that students were camped out in the air conditioned lounge, sleeping there overnight despite rules against it. He recognized that extreme heat was affecting everybody.
“It’s not just a homelessness issue,” Christian said. “It’s basically everyone who doesn’t have the privilege of having central air, which is a majority of people in this region.”
While the students mainly discussed the discomfort of trying to fall asleep in a hot room, there may also be a negative impact on their health. Dr. Leah Werner, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at OHSU and founder of its Primary Care Climate Change and Health Program, said that heat can have a serious and deleterious impact on the human body and is particularly concerning as the planet continues to warm.
“Thermoregulation is necessary for optimal cellular function,” Werner said. “Climate change is significantly impacting our global surface temperatures and so the physiologic adaptations that are required are more extensive now.”
She went on to say that, “Extreme temperatures can really overwhelm those thermoregulatory mechanisms, and it can lead to life threatening conditions, such as heat hyperthermia.”
She noted the importance of cooling off at night. When a dorm holds the heat captured during the day, the body has a harder time cooling off.
“As you can imagine, this is increasing the adaptation stress for human beings,” Werner explained. “[This can] stress your brain; it stresses your heart; it stresses your kidneys; it stresses your gut. And we have seen that even very young, healthy people over time [can] end up with permanent renal damage.”
Dr. Joe Needoba, Associate Professor at OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, said that one of the most basic precautionary measures to be taken to combat the negative effects of heat is to be educated. Using what we know to prepare, he says, is crucial.
“If [students] know that those things can be a potential problem, they can get ahead of it before a heat wave really sets in,” Needoba explained.
UHRL has—in the past—offered resources and information on heat safety measures its residents can take throughout the summer. Those include drinking plenty of water and staying out of the heat. They have also pointed to several air conditioned locations on campus where residents can find refuge including the lounges in Blumel and Montgomery as well as the first and second floors of Ondine.
But students have argued that UHRL should do more.
In multiple opinion pieces written by Nick Gatlin for PSU Vanguard in the summer of 2023, he referenced Oregon Senate Bill 1536 which stated that landlords were required to allow portable free standing and window mounted air conditioners under certain conditions.
Gatlin argued that this law applied to UHRL, yet an update to its policy hadn’t taken place.
In another piece by Gatlin, UHRL’s Executive Director Ashley Wendler responded by noting that the policy at the time that disallowed portable air conditioners was based on electrical limitations within the dorms. She also noted that UHRL was working to update its policy to allow—for the first time—portable air conditioners in its dorms.
That change came in Summer 2024.
In a memo obtained by the Vanguard, UHRL outlined the new policy and the fact that it was subject to change “if there are substantial electrical service issues.” They also note that UHRL is not responsible for the purchase or upkeep of these personal air conditioners.
Responsibility for the purchase of one of a few approved units thus lay completely upon student residents.
“God, no, not with where I’m at right now financially, no way,” said PSU Student Haven Sharp when asked about whether or not she would purchase a unit.
Coder decided to get a job in part to purchase a unit. Others didn’t have the funds to purchase a unit, which could cost several hundreds of dollars. Christian was one of them.
“At this point, I would have preferred to be cooler and have my own AC unit, yes, but I guess I’ve just sort of gotten used to [the heat] and to live with it.”
Christian emphasized that not all residents had the means to purchase a unit but that “people are appreciative of the policy change.” He was also unaware of any electrical issues that UHRL had previously cited as a potential problem.
UHRL did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The policy change this summer seemed to have minimal disruptions and an overall positive effect on student residents. But, they argued, more could be done.
“I feel like they could definitely provide AC units to every resident,” said Christian.
Students also echoed the fact that prolonged exposure to heat is a greater-than-PSU problem.
“What we need to do is to build better, more resilient communities against increasing heat wave activity,” said Needoba.
