College Park students ditch hot dorms for cool lounges

A hot start to the school year prompted some students at the University of Maryland, College Park to escape the heat by ditching their dorm rooms in favor of crashing in lounges. As temperatures soared into the 90s and heat index values hit triple digits this week, some students in dorms without air conditioning sought refuge in cooler multipurpose rooms and lounges, where the school provided mattresses and fans, a university spokeswoman said. Tracy Kiras, a spokeswoman for the university’s resident life department, said the school has taken measures to support the 2,000 students who live without air conditioning in Carroll, Caroline, Wicomico and Worchester halls. She said the university has provided about 400 fans, allowed students access to other air-conditioned buildings, delivered 90 mattresses to airconditioned lounges and multipurpose rooms, and stocked freezers in dorms with ice pops for students. It’s typical for the start of the fall semester to see a few hot days, but this week’s heat seemed unusual, Kiras said. The university has taken similar measures to accommodate students during hot weather periods before, but this was the most extreme effort Kiras could recall. The buildings without air conditioning are scheduled to be replaced by new dorms, and the university has no plans to renovate the existing halls to equip them with air conditioning.