As students and professors returned to Diablo Valley College in August, so did the heat. 

Temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees during the first two weeks of the fall semester, leaving many students and faculty desperate to escape indoors. But due to aging infrastructure and a number of dysfunctional air conditioning units across campus, many classrooms remained hot as the school’s maintenance team struggled to keep up.

“It’s like a sauna in here,” said psychology professor Felicia Perez, who teaches in Room 119 of the Liberal Arts (LA) building, where the humid air clings to you upon entering and interferes with academics.

“It’s challenging to teach a class,” Perez said. “In the beginning when I walk in, it’s not as hot. But as the class keeps on going I start to get hotter, sweating a lot.” 

Perez wasn’t the only one feeling the heat in the classroom. Maddie Bullotta, a third year psychology major, described her time in Room 119 as uncomfortable and detrimental to her education.

“It’s hard to soak up all the information I’m learning with this heat,” she said.

Other classrooms in the LA building also struggled with faulty AC. Ximena Castillo and Jimena Mejia, both sophomores at DVC, described their experience in the spring taking class a few doors down. 

“We had [Room] 113, it was in the corner, but there was no air ever—no air at all,” said Mejia.

Castillo said she too experienced difficulty paying attention last semester due to the lack of cooling and ventilation.

“You’re more focused on overheating and sweating than what is being taught,” Castillo said.

Castillo and Mejia said their English professor, Anthony Gonzales, requested to change the class out of Room 113, but was denied the switch.

“Our teacher told us that the AC had been broken for a while, but that there was nothing that we could do about it,” said Castillo.

James Buchanan, the director of maintenance and operations at DVC, said he sent technicians to determine the issue with Room 119, where temperatures were reading higher.

“One room above is at 72 [degrees], and Room 119 is at 78,” Buchanan told The Inquirer. But, “they should [both] read 72 degrees because they’re supplied by the same air handler unit.”

Buchanan confirmed that the issue of overheated classrooms extends beyond the LA building. 

“It’s an aging infrastructure, and this is occurring on a daily basis throughout the campus, on multiple buildings that we’re always having to go troubleshoot [and] reset the units,” he said.

A 2016 evaluation by the energy engineering and consulting firm Newcomb, Anderson and McCormic concluded that the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system installed in 2005 in the LA building had another nine years to go before it needed replacement, according to Buchanan.

“So here we are, that would be the year 2025,” he said. “It’s not surprising that we’re having problems with those units.”

Already, the college’s maintenance division is in the process of implementing a five-year plan to address the modernization of campus HVAC units and other facilities, Buchanan added. 

“It’s a myriad of different projects that we have on the list,” he said, “and a lot of these are HVAC replacements.”

In the meantime, looking ahead to a potentially warm autumn, students and teachers who find themselves in some of DVC’s outdated infrastructure may just have to endure the heat.

“It’s uncomfortable to teach,” said Perez. “I hope it gets fixed soon because we still have heat waves coming along in October.”