Campus finds ways to beat the heat

By Hilary Strickland, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 9, 1998

The miserable heat has not subsided. With the mercury soaring to 100 degrees and the humidity levels up to 30 percent, students on campus are finding ways to beat the heat.

Cal State Long Beach receives its electricity from Southern California Edison, and when the system becomes overloaded it shuts off.

Unfortunately, that means the air conditioning is one of the first things to go.

Some of the newer buildings on campus are equipped with air conditioning. The University Bookstore is one of the lucky ones. While students are standing in mile-long lines, they can at least take refuge from the climbing temperatures.

The University Library is air conditioned, along with the University Student Union. Students have been sprawled out all over the couches and chairs in both buildings in an attempt to stay cool.

The Women's Resource Center does not have air conditioning, but students still utilize the center in between classes to try and get out of the sun.

"The LA5 building is air conditioned, but everything else is so hot I keep falling asleep," said Elizabeth Quinn, a liberal arts major.

Some instructors have been conducting their classes with the lights off in an attempt to make class time more bearable for the students.

"All my classes are pretty much air conditioned," said Katrina Hill, an 18-year-old psychology major. "It's just that the shuttle is so hot with all those bodies packed in there."

The heat is an easy scapegoat when it comes to finding excuses for skipping classes. Some students have been lucky enough to have a few classes canceled.

"More than one of my classes have been canceled because of the heat," said Casey Powell, a 21-year-old communications major. "I wasn't disappointed at all, I just went to the beach."