By The Editorial Board

We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave. Even as the temperatures in New York plummet, Faculty Memorial Hall continues to bake in a climate that closer resembles sub-Saharan Africa. Getting dressed in the morning for a trip to FMH requires the utmost strategic planning. Regardless of the snowflakes falling, classrooms in FMH will inevitably be sweltering. Students end up layering and shedding coats, scarves and sweatshirts with abandon. Already cramped, the tiny classrooms of FMH are simply not conducive to scarf storage. Often, navigating between coat-stacked desks ends in bruised hips, tipped Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and stubbed toes.

Although overheated classrooms seem to be a relatively minor problem, we invite you to consider the larger ramifications of the issue. Spending one or even two hour class periods in such sweltering temperatures makes students drowsy and groggy. Staying awake becomes a herculean trial. Many times, the most well-intentioned collegiate finds him or herself physically sweating while trying to remember the answers to an exam. Simply put, FMH is not an acceptable learning environment in its current, hyper-thermal state.

Students are not the only members of Fordham who struggle with FMH’s overheated facilities. Faculty members struggle to teach while their students complain and drift off into heat-induced naps. Many a fearsomely tweedy professor has been brought to his shirtsleeves by the temperatures in FMH, removing his intimidation factor along with his navy blazer. After hearing endless complaints from students, faculty feel compelled to interrupt their lectures in an attempt to remedy the classroom’s extreme temperature.

Wrestling with the frequently un-openable windows becomes an ordeal unto itself. When the beleaguered faculty member finally wrenches them open, the noise of car horns and hip-hop off the street below bombards the classroom. Cue an overeager student slamming the windows shut in order to hear the lecture, and the cycle repeats.

A small change in the climate of FMH would make a huge difference in the lives of students. Installing a new, more effective and energy-efficient heating system in FMH would make classes more focused, as well as increasing the effectiveness of professors.

Additionally, turning down the heat for the building would be more environmentally friendly and save on heating costs for the university. There is absolutely no reason to make everyone uncomfortable.