There is nothing quite as frustrating as not being able to locate the cool side of the pillow.

The majority of my nights at Pace this semester have incorporated a new unintentional bed- time ritual. It begins by removing my makeup, showering and brushing my teeth – all standard procedures. Everything after that is unnecessary and goes as follows: kick covers around a whole lot until they end up on the floor, refill water bottle, get up to make sure that the air conditioning is on high–it is-and that both windows are open – they are. It is at this point that I make the both logical and conscious decision to sleep on the floor because the cold ground is far more appealing than a sweat infused bed.

For some reason Pace feels that it is necessary to pump the heat of the Sahara Desert into students’ dorms. While an ideal heating system would allow students to regulate desired temperatures, which can be done in the townhouses, most other dorms are regulated by a mass control system.

The obvious issue at hand is that students are overheated. It prevents them from get a good night’s rest and waking up is of- ten accompanied by swollen and blood shot eyes. Many students have yet to switch from summer to winter bedding. Getting dressed in the morning makes students make fools of them- selves as they leave the dorms wearing short sleeves but once they get outside the temperature can be as much as thirty degrees cooler.

The underlying issue is that this is incredibly wasteful. Not only is Pace pumping too much heat into the dorms, which can pose as both financial and environmental issues, but students are opening windows which al- lows the heat to escape. Only one third of the heat being pumped into the dormitories is necessary for warming purposes.

Additionally, when students leave their dorms the heat is still running. Shouldn’t there be a switch to turn it off? Our parents always taught us to shut off a light when we are not using it and turn off the water when we brush our teeth. Heat is no different. If we are not in our rooms then heat is not essential.

It’s unnerving to consider that a large portion of the money that we dish out to Pace goes towards funding the personal saunas that were once our sleeping quarters. If Pace plans on cranking the heat of the condensed suns of the universe into our dorms then can they set aside some of that oil to- wards the cold shower water?