The summer heat has taken everyone hostage and no one can escape the sweltering high temperatures. The high heat had students applying sunscreen in copious amounts every couple of hours and had professors running air conditioners constantly.

On the Bakersfield College main campus, the Language Arts building remained very warm throughout the first day of classes, Aug. 26. The Maintenance and Operations manager William Potter said, “it was an isolated event in which the chiller in the LA building was not working properly.”

However, this does not affect the administration’s decision to conserve energy by turning off the air conditioning in the buildings where no classes are held on the weekends, leading to scorching temperatures on Monday mornings. As each new week begins, morning students are greeted by muggy and uncomfortably warm classrooms. The lack of air conditioning on campus, Potter said,  “only occurs throughout the weekends by turning off the A/C to empty buildings, unscheduled rooms during the nights, weekends, and holidays.”

According to Potter, “conserving energy on campus and has been the practice of the campus for unused rooms for a number of years.”

Around campus, students flock to the cafeteria and library to escape the heat and cool down while having conversations that would usually take place outside until the start of their class.