During Summer 2025, the remaining dorms at Occidental College without air conditioning — Chilcott Hall, Haines Hall, Stearns Hall and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) house — are set to have it installed. According to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Education, Housing Services and Student Conduct Isaiah Thomas, the installations will be completed by the start of the Fall 2025 semester.
Thomas said student inquiries helped lead Residential Education and Housing Services (REHS) to advocate for the project.
“In the 2022-23 academic year, I worked closely with Dave Caldwell, former Dean of Students Rob Flot and former President Harry Elam to elevate the importance of air conditioning and the overall residential experience in the Occidental Promise. The Board of Trustees expressed support of this project last academic year,” Thomas said via email.
According to Director of Facilities David Caldwell, students will not see an increase in tuition or housing cost from the AC project.
“The [AC] project was approved by the board, so it comes from the endowment or some other institutional reserves,” Caldwell said. “There are other costs associated with it that the college’s infrastructure and facilities budget is paying for, like the electrical components.”
Caldwell said the process of taking the proposal to the board was more complicated than simply requesting the funding.
“The biggest challenge from our perspective was that the addition of air conditioning to the dorms required us to also update some electrical systems,” Caldwell said. “When you make a big change like that, there are second and third order effects. So, we had to sort of plan for all of that in order to take that to the board.
According to Caldwell, the bidding process was different from last year’s, and the team selected a different contractor for the 2025 project.
“We also wanted to make sure the solution that we came up with met the college’s sustainability goals,” Caldwell said. “So, we picked air conditioning and heat pump units that were at the top end of sustainability metrics.”
Caldwell said a proposal existed before his time at Occidental, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Amos Himmelstein had to wait for the school to return to its new normal before sorting out an updated proposal.
“At the continued insistence of students and REHS, [Himmelstein] and I came to the Board of Trustees with a proposal to finally fund the addition of the air conditioners,” Caldwell said.
Stella Cammack (sophomore) said she has lived in dorms without AC throughout her entire time at Occidental.
“Freshman year, I lived in Stewie, which didn’t have AC at the time,” Cammack said. “I guess [the temporary units] worked […] but when it was very sunny, it was not very effective.”
This year, Cammack said she has used a variety of fans and kept the blinds shut to keep her room in Haines cooler.
Cammack said she sometimes avoids her room when she knows it will be too hot, opting to instead go places she knows will be air-conditioned and looks forward to spending more time comfortably in her room next year, regardless of where she lives.
“We use one of the box fans in the doorway to get cool air from the hallway,” Cammack said. “Having to keep the door open to keep the room cool definitely doesn’t make it feel like a safe space because people can look inside.”
Assistant Dean of Students for Emmons Wellness Center Devon Sakamoto said via email that Emmons has partnered with REHS to provide educational materials to students about staying safe in extreme heat. Sakamoto also said that although Emmons was not directly involved in the decision to install AC, they did not need to be part of the conversation.
Martha Davis (sophomore) said she moved from Newcomb to Stearns at the start of this year’s spring semester. She said moving from a dorm with AC to one without was on her mind during the room change process.
“The rooms in Newcomb are quite nice, and I had heard that the AC was really good,” Davis said. “It was really, really hot this fall, and the AC made it bearable.”
Contact Abigail Montopoli at montopoli@oxy.edu
