Sign the Petition to reduce the heating in your dorm!
11 11 2006In many dorms, heaters are not controlled in individual rooms and instead are all connected to a central heating source. Right now, all dorm heaters come on when the outside temperature drops below 68 degrees F, which means it could still be 80 degrees in our dorms when the heater comes on!
Thus, CCC is starting a petition to ask the Building and Grounds Department to lower the temperature at which the heaters come on to 58 degrees. Additionally, we are requesting that the set temperature be 67 degrees in the daytime and 64 degrees at night.
Click on the link below to sign the petition!
Sign it now:
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hey the submit button isn’t working! please sign my name to this petition! Elisa Hartwig, elisa.hartwig@Pomona.edu, Lawry dorm
It should be fixed now!
P.S. I added your name to the petition for you.
I think that this petition is a great idea, because it’s ridiculous that the heat goes on when it’s 68 outside. However, 58 as the outside temperature at which the heaters turn on is way too low, especially if the temperature is only set to 67 inside. This means that it could be 68 inside and 59 outside and the heaters would be off…. I do like it cool, but setting the inside thermostat to 68 during the day is pushing the boundaries of comfort. As ridiculous as the present heating situation is, it would also be ridiculous to have functioning heaters but to not use them when it’s cold inside.
If the petition does pass, I fear that there might be backlash against it and CCC. People might sign it now because it seems like a good alternative to the heat, but once everyone’s cold, they might want to turn the heat back up, defeating the entire purpose.
Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to set a more moderate outside temperature at which the heaters would turn on? Maybe 64 or 65 or so? Then, we could live in comfort without wasting excess energy. The point of CCC and this petition is to curb energy use, not to make Pomona students shiver in discomfort.
I think 64 degrees is not that cold, especially during the day - it is so much easier to put on a jacket than to be dying of overheating in the dorms, with the windows wide open. It is just such a ridiculous thing to be wasting energy on… I like the petition - thanks guys!
I agree with Dana, if we are reallly working to change the culture and awareness at Pomona, it might be a good thing for Pomona students to be a little chilly at night. Then they can think about how to adapt to this lower temperature (aka wear a sweater, or snuggle under covers), and more importatnly think about whether those few extra degrees of farenheight are worth the increased consumption of energy.
Y’all deserve lots of praise for all the great work your doing. I really hope that every dorm surpasses the minimum goal of 50% pledge signatures and 5% energy reductions.
Two final Q’s:
1. Do you think it would be helpful to throw a “snack brainsorm party” in each dorm to discuss how each dorm can creatively reduce energy?
2. How do we find out who the CCC representatives are for each dorm?
I agree with Alysia. I, too, support the underlying principle of this petition, but disagree with having the heat come on at 58 degrees. There are plenty of other ways to decrease energy consumption. Since when has 50% of a population become a good enough percentage to invade other people’s personal comfort?
Alice,
While the petition requests that heaters not be turned on until in-dorm temperatures reach 58 degrees or lower, this does not mean that temperatures will actually get that low. The petition will not cause all dorms to cool to a brisk, but manageable 58 degrees. The petition is just resetting the “temperature limits” within the dorms, such that the temperature in the dorms will never go below 58 degrees.
Also, from what I have heard it is more than just 50% percent of each dorm which is signing the temperature petition so I’m not sure how accurate you “50 percent majority rules” argument actually is. I think it would actually be very interesting and informative if CCC made the % of petitioners per dorm available on their website. This would allow all of us to see just how much support this temperature initiative is really getting.
If you really disagree with the temperature setting petition, I’m sure you could make a similar petition, with a slightly higher minimum temperature, get 50% of your dorm to sign it and then get your ideal temperature for your dorm.
On a final note, as I said before I think that as we, as people and as an institution, move towards sustainability we will have to really challenge the idea of the right of “comfort”. How much environmental impact can we justify for the purpose of comfort?
As a
I don’t know if anyone is still reading this comment section, but would it be possible to extend this idea to the academic buildings? 3 of my 4 classes are in Hahn, and for every single class every day since the semester started, the air conditioner is ALWAYS on, even when it’s 70 or below outside. Just as the dorms don’t need to be heated constantly, I don’t think the academic buildings need to have the AC on all the time.