At 11:30 p.m. Allison Landis lay down on her mattress to fall asleep to the drone of five different fans. One hour later, she hit her breaking point. She snatched a blanket, bundled a pillow into her arms and traveled down her dorm’s hallway in search for air conditioning (A/C) and a proper night’s rest. 

Landis, a freshman studying apparel, merchandising and design and a resident of Welch Hall’s fourth floor, is one of thousands of Iowa State students living in a dorm room lacking A/C as Iowa begins to creep to the end of a recent heat wave.

Following a power plant fire Wednesday afternoon, many campus buildings are temporarily without A/C. However, even before the fire, students in 12 of the university’s 23 dorms did not have A/C in their private rooms.

Residents in non-airconditioned private spaces account for roughly one-third of on-campus residents, according to an emailed statement from the Department of Residence (DOR). 

“Many of Iowa State residence halls were built prior to the popularity of air conditioning,” the DOR stated in an email. “The ISU Department of Residence is continually working to maintain and upgrade our facilities. Expanding the number of halls that are air conditioned is something we hope to do in years to come.”

Landis said she appreciates that having dorms without A/C provides a more inclusive housing options for students who cannot afford a higher price tag. However, she also believes the dorms should include a certain standard of daily living.

“If you’re paying the price to live somewhere, you’re paying like $4,000 a semester, [so] you want to be comfortable and you want to be able to be and live in your room,” Landis said. “What’s the point of paying if you can’t even be in there?” 

With feels-like temperatures repeatedly soaring beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit, many residents, like Landis, have resorted to spending their nights in their dorm common spaces, which typically do have A/C.

Eva Jordan, a freshman design student living in Helser Hall, said half of her dorm’s house has been sleeping in their den. 

“You typically want to feel relaxed when you’re going to bed, but it’s pretty much impossible with how hot it is,” Jordan said. 

When Landis slept in Welch’s common space Tuesday night, she counted eight to ten other residents spread out across the couches and chairs. Landis had tried to tough it out by sleeping in her room at the beginning of the week, but she finally gave up at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

“[Tuesday] night when I was wearing literally nothing, I had all of the fans pointed towards me and I was like ‘Oh it’s so terrible’…I woke up an hour after falling asleep, and I was just so frustrated,” Landis said.

Logan Peterson, a freshman studying finance and a Roberts Hall resident, said he has been able to sleep in his room as long as a fan is on his face. He and his roommate have six fans scattered throughout their space, but Peterson said the room’s overall temperature still compares to a sauna.

“It just kills my mood, to be honest,” Peterson said. “Walking up the stairs and walking back from class, I’m already sweating [and] I’m tired. Then I get into my room and it’s like 90 plus degrees in there.”

Mason Kaiser and Lincoln Stover, roommates on Linden Hall’s third floor, have also still been sleeping in their actual beds. However, they said sleeping is essentially the only thing they have been doing in their room.

Stover, a freshman studying agricultural business, and Kaiser, a freshman studying agronomy, spend most of their free time with a friend who has A/C. They return to their room late at night to climb into their beds and sleep and immediately leave when they wake up the next morning.

“Usually you don’t want your alarm to go off, but you wake up in the middle of the night and you’re just hoping your alarm goes off so you can go somewhere with A/C,” Kaiser said. “It’s like sleeping in a pool of water, but it’s not water.”

Waking up to a sweat-soaked bed has been a common experience among the students in the non-air conditioned dorms, in addition to multiple cold showers a day. Landis said she took three cold showers on Monday alone.

“It is beautiful just to remember what cold feels like,” Landis said. “Then I get out, and it’s terrible again. Walking back [to my room] I’m already sweating,” 

The air within the no A/C dorm rooms and hallways sits in a dense wall of humidity with little air movement. Multiple residents described melted food and makeup, and Stover even noted that his wooden desk has started to sweat. 

Several residents also commented that despite having anywhere from three to six fans, the muggy feeling saturating their rooms is often just pushed around in an unrelenting cycle. 

“Besides the dens, we don’t have anywhere else,” said Antonio Perez, a freshman in the open-option program and a Wilson Hall resident. “Even our hallways are super muggy, and pretty much the entire building just ends up becoming a huge swamp.”

These conditions, while uncomfortable, have also presented potential safety concerns for some students.

“I get how large of a process [installing A/C] would be…but at the same time, for times like this, it does regard things like student safety or sleeping and well-being,” Perez said. “It might be something the school needs to address.” 

Jamaal Cisse, a freshman studying civil engineering and a Welch Hall resident, developed a headache one day after sitting in his room for two hours, even when refilling his 20-ounce water bottle roughly five times per day.

Kaiser and Stover have also been increasing their water intake, with Stover estimating that he drank 96 ounces of water within five hours.

“It’s probably the most I’ve drank in a long time, and you’re still not hydrated,” Kaiser said. 

Lily Prochaska, a freshman studying journalism and mass communication and a resident of Welch Hall, said her roommate has also gotten several headaches while she herself has developed a stuffy nose from sleeping with multiple fans pointed at her.

However, Prochaska and her roommate feel confident that heat exhaustion will be avoidable as long as they keep their fans blowing. Cisse also said that even though he did not preference Welch Hall, he is not mad about his placement because he is glad to have a place to stay.

The DOR stated that they sent emails to their residents with educational resources on the best ways to stay cool. They also stated that they have fans available for check out at hall desks and air-conditioned common spaces open to students 24/7.

“The health and wellness of our students is the highest priority for Iowa State,” the DOR stated. 

Temperatures are projected to begin dropping Friday morning, which has some residents anxiously awaiting the moment they can turn their fans off and sleep with a blanket on.

“We’re all suffering right now, so the only thing that’s keeping me going is that on Tuesday the high is supposed to be 77 degrees,” Landis said. “Maybe I’ll even wear pants on Tuesday and just go crazy.”