Helser Hall residents are steamed.

“We, the students of Helser Hall, are tired of living, studying and sleeping in the heat and humidity,” states a petition circulated yesterday demanding that air conditioning be installed in the hall within one year. If air conditioning isn’t possible, the residents are demanding a reduction in room fees.

“I don’t feel that anything will get done until we put on the pressure,” said Jonathan Wolf, the Helser resident who initiated the petition.

Wolf asked maintenance personnel about the possibility of air conditioning in the dorms and was not satisfied with what he heard.

Wolf said a maintenance official told him there were no plans to install air conditioning because of a lack of funds and a complicated wiring problem. The official suggested that Wolf start a petition.

So he did.

Wolf has collected 575 signatures so far and plans to present them to Gary Schwartz, assistant director of residence at Iowa State.

Wolf said he’s observed waste in other spending ventures, indicating that funds for air conditioning may in fact be available.

“They are remodeling a floor in Helser and putting a new computer room in,” Wolf said.

Charles Frederiksen, the university’s director of residence halls, said there is no justification to air condition dorms that are not used year round, like Helser.

Wolf disagrees.

“It is summer right now,” he said. “[The heat] effects us during August, September, late April and May and that’s finals time. If you can’t study in your room, where are you supposed to go?”

Wolf said it isn’t fair that students in rooms without air conditioning pay the same rates as students with cooler rooms.

“Some students in Friley do have air conditioning and their fees are the same,” he said. “Either we need to lower the cost of dorms without air conditioning or pay for what we are getting.”