A Dumb Rule (and Dumber Implementation)

I'm a bit behind on blog posts (I still owe one), and it was becoming quite an ordeal to think of a topic for this week that I cared about... until the man oppressed me.

At Stevens, I've come to understand that there is a rule regarding the central air and air conditioning of the dorms: if there are three consecutive days of 60-degree weather (or less) around Fall time, the air will be turned off until post-Winter. This de facto (hey — terms!) standard wouldn't bother me had the weather not being extraordinarily hot and humid last week. Obviously, nature doesn't conform to what we do, so I wasn't annoyed that it was hot — I was annoyed that our ability to counteract the heat was removed. Moreover, I was frustrated at the seeming lack of thought put into the standard that kept this person sweaty, and this person's roommate up until 4:00 a.m. because he couldn't sleep.

Before I continue, let me simply say that I don't intend this piece to be ranty or whiny, but because of the nature of my complaint, it will, at some points, inevitably sound so. According to a few sources that I've asked about this (namely Residence Assistants in my dorm, Jonas Hall), the standard in place is to revoke the functionality of our thermostats (there is central air in my hall; other dorms have air conditioners) if the powers-that-be notice a trend in the weather shifting. The standard makes all the sense in the world: turn off the air when it isn't needed to save money. I love it. However, when the statistical backing of this kiddie standard is three days, I hate it.

I understand that we can't fully predict the weather, and I don't expect that out of anyone. However, three days is unacceptable as a basis for rescinding air conditioning rights campus-wide, especially when we are all aware that, for whatever reasons, the weather is more unpredictable than it ever has been. In my eyes, the solution is simple: fix the basis by which the standard is constructed. A week of 60-degree or lower weather? Take our A/C away; it's probably the beginning of the cold Fall weather. But three days is clearly a weak basis, for the weather, a day after revoking our air conditioning (or the day of; I can't recall), defied the three-day trend that the school implemented and left us in uncomfortable conditions.

Now, let me address that last sentence. I know we are not in the Sahara, and the weather is back to being cool — I'm over it. The issue I have with the standard in place is that it seems like its creation took place on a napkin inside Pierce Dining Hall, less than three minutes before a meeting to approve the standard. None of this is world-changing, and we're "just college kids" after all, but when creating a standard, a margin of error has to be accounted for always. Without it, a standard's scope will quickly become outdated, ineffective, and ultimately unsatisfactory to all parties affected by the standard.