Moving in is painful. Students get everything out of storage, wait for their boxes from HUA, rearrange furniture for maximum space (and try to hide the hole you made in a wall from your bedpost). With different rooming situations and different House layouts, the one constant you will always see is sweat.
This year, Cambridge experienced record-breaking heat waves according to the Boston Globe. While only a few dorms have access to air conditioning, Harvard refuses to turn on most of the ACs for sake of equity between student housing.
Many students complain about the rarity of AC-equipped dorms and wish Harvard provided consistent AC access. One super senior, Tyler Sanok ’23, does not have AC in his dormitory in his five years on campus. Other students, who asked to remain anonymous, resort to sneaking in their own ACs without Harvard’s approval. Students also use the Disability Access Office to their advantage, claiming AC as an accommodation for their ailments.
After believing himself to be one of the lucky students with air conditioning, Jamie Momoh ’25 was shocked to find his AC did not work and only dripped all over his carpeting. “I don’t think it’s fair that my AC doesn’t work and everyone else who lives here has it, but also it’s not fair that all the other dorms don’t have it,” he said, “I know the administration says that the grid isn’t big enough for everyone at Harvard to have AC, but they’re definitely rich enough to fix that.”
Many students have different theories for the lack of widespread AC. Sanok thinks that Harvard does not have in-unit ACs because they “don’t match the aesthetic that Harvard wants to portray.” There is nothing “dark academia” about a white box poking out of a window.
Cole Yellin ’25 thought that it could be because of environmental concerns, as ACs use up a significant amount of electricity, and “Harvard is a place that cares about its image as a green university.”
Like many other students, Brendan Kiely ’24 has been speculating that “all the new buildings have AC capabilities, but they don’t turn it on because the administration doesn’t think it’s equitable for the other houses who don’t have access.”
That last rumor is widespread around campus, but there is no publicly available information to confirm or deny it. Unfunctional ACs have been rumored to be found in the newly renovated dorms such as Dunster, Lowell, and Winthrop. However, Dean Straker, who serves as Senior Assistant Dean of Residential Life, only knows of two dorms with AC — Dewolfe and The Inn (aka Oaktel). Without clarity from administration, the confusion around who gets AC and who deserves AC continues.
As rising temperatures cause massive heatwaves around the globe, climate change has the potential to make an uncomfortably hot first week into a torturous month (or more!) for Harvard students. There is no telling how hot August will get in the coming years, but it is easy to imagine that heat will become a problem that the university cannot ignore.
Students demand communication and reasoning for Harvard’s logic. College is supposed to be the great equalizer, however many students do not believe rationing AC can fix inevitable housing inequality. Instead it only creates sleep deprived and smelly students entering their first week of classes.
Seattle Hickey ’25 (seattlehickey@college.harvard.edu) can’t fall asleep without the AC on.