Students Feel the Heat Waiting on Maintenance

It is not unusual for a Southwestern College maintenance request to sit for a few weeks or a month. An air conditioning issue in room 429, however, went for more than five years without resolution, causing faculty and students to get overheated.

Room 429, a reading classroom located in the Academic Success Center, has some folks hot under the collar.

John Brown, SWC’s facilities director, insists everything is taken care of. Faculty who use the sweltering room have taken a wait-and-see attitude.

“It appears there have been multiple and varied problems over the years with HVAC [Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning] in building 420, impacting room 429,” he said. “It appears maintenance had addressed those as they have come up, which is not unusual, and Dr. Levine is now personally satisfied with the current conditions.”

Dr. Joel Levine, dean of the School and Language and Literature, said he was not personally satisfied.

“I saw Gus [Frederick “Gus” Latham, maintenance supervisor] this morning and he’s not 100 percent satisfied,” Levine said. “He felt pretty good about it and thought they had taken care of it. But the test remains to see what it’s like after a lot of students had been in there for a while on a reasonably warm day.”
Levin, Latham and many others insist there is reason to be cynical after five-plus years of room 429 as a hot topic.



In August 2007, Fredric Ball, professor of reading and basic education, sent an email to the chair of the reading department, Susan Brenner, describing how the room heats up in warm months due to lack of air conditioning. In the email he pointed out that he had been complaining about the room “for a few years.” Brenner forwarded a request to Levine, who sent it to the campus maintenance department where it languished for five years. Students have also languished during that time in the stifling heat of room 429.
Ball said that when instructors and students would enter the classroom in the early morning during warm months, the atmosphere was already stuffy and oppressive.

“Somebody comes in at 5:30 p.m. and it’s had warm bodies in it all day,” he said. “It’s been hot in there all day. Now it’s miserable.”

Brenner said the heat is enough for her to want to keep out of the room.

“I go into that room when it’s busy and full of students and it’s too much for me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Ball said it affects everyone who uses the room.

“It makes the students physically uncomfortable,” he said. “We’re coming into fall and winter months now so it won’t be that much of an issue. But in the spring it’s warm again. You see them fanning themselves and mopping sweat off their faces. I feel bad for them, but I’m wiping sweat off my face, too.”

Brenner estimated that between 1,200 and 1,300 students attend classes in the room each year.

“With the exception of this summer just ended, the room has been used every spring, summer and fall since 2006,” she said.

Ball, who has taught classes in 429 almost every semester since then, said these are busy classes.

“All the reading classes in that room are full to capacity – every time,” he said.

He said that the reading department’s concern about the overheated room was about more than comfort. It was about students having difficulties concentrating.

“If it’s 83 degrees in the room and 95 or 100 outside, you really can’t focus,” Ball said. “They’re not interested. They’re easily distracted. This is just not a good learning or teaching environment.”

In the five years since Ball’s initial request little has changed in the classroom. The room is oppressively hot for several months and the air conditioning has never worked properly. A new chain of emails began in 2008 when Brenner sent requests to Miguel Aguilera, the environmental, health and safety coordinator. After a month of back-and-forth, Sid Bocalan, the school’s lead HVAC mechanic at the time, reported that he had replaced air conditioning compressors at the Academic Success Center, but there were still problems in the classroom due to “air balance issues.”

Ball said nothing has changed in that time, except that someone from maintenance brought them an oscillating fan as a stopgap measure. It was removed this summer.

“Four years later, there’s still no air,” he said.

Brown said he doesn’t know how this was addressed.

“Perhaps Miguel and Dr. Levine remember this incident and what was done,” he said. “I am unable to determine from this email what was done to address the concerns in the past.”

Attempts to speak with people in the maintenance department proved difficult. Aguilera, who was involved from 2007 to 2008, said he was not in a position to speak. He suggested Latham, who has been involved since 2008. Latham said he was uncomfortable answering questions about the room and suggested Brown, who said some of the problem was because none of the requests were correctly filed.

“This email string highlights a good point,” Brown said. “I have been trying to get everyone to make sure they submit their request via the HEAT system. It keeps a record so Maintenance can track it.”

Brown was hired in February 2010, three years after the initial request was filed, and two years after maintenance first attempted to fix it in 2008. Latham became involved that year and attempted to get maintenance personnel to complete the request.

“Gus was added to the email in 2008, but that [air balance issue] was not the problem this past August and September,” Brown said. “The current problem appeared to have been a failed damper and fallen soft insulation. The same result, it’s hot in room 429, but for a different reason.”

Brenner said that a recent incident in the 1600 building gave her hope that students could finally begin to study in a semblance of comfort. An instructor found another room without air conditioning. Brenner filed a maintenance request for that, too.

“I thought, Holy Cow! They fixed the air up there,” she said. “I figured if it worked in 1680, maybe it would work in 429. I put in a work order again.”

The work in the room was completed in six days.

Reading Professor Carmen Nieves said she wasn’t surprised maintenance personnel were working on the problem, but she said she did not expect much to come of it.

“This is what happens every time Freddie brings it up,” she said. “Initially they look at it. They assess it. They determine the same thing they determined two years prior. And they leave it alone. Then it starts getting cool again.”

Levine agreed.

“There is always something said about doing it, but it doesn’t get fixed,” he said. “There’s an initial response, but no follow through.”

Levine did say that Latham thought the problem was solved.

“Gus said he felt that he’d solved it,” Levine said. “However, he did admit that the test will be when you have a classroom full of students.”

Levine said receiving any follow-up communication from the maintenance department was both new and welcoming, because until now no one had ever asked if the reading department was satisfied.

“I think I would have remembered that,” he said, “and I don’t remember anybody from maintenance saying ‘We tried this in 429. Get back to us on how well it worked.’”

For his part, Ball said he feels no anger or resentment about the situation, but he is frustrated.

“I don’t like complaining,” he said. “I think we have good people here, but there’s a disconnect somewhere. Somebody’s dropping the ball.”

Levine adds that he is willing to take a measure of responsibility.

“It falls to me to push to get this done,” he said. “I have to take part of the responsibility. I need to push, otherwise we play this game again and again. The students can’t play this forever.”

Read at the Sun.