Thermostats are one of the luxury of dorms. In some of the dorms in SU, including Mabee, Herman-Brown, DLC and many others, students are granted the privilege of thermostats, rather than a centralized air conditioning system that does not grant students any liberty to change temperatures to suit their preferences. 

The thermostats are amazingly versatile with a wide range of settings from “the arctic” to “the air is supposedly on”. Students tend to fiddle around with the thermostats often because they enjoy the functionality and effectiveness of the temperature settings available. The thermostats are very accommodative and allow students to adjust to their preferred climates.

“The thermostats are amazing! My roommates always complain about how frozen the room is but I feel that it’s wonderful! So what if the windows are frosted all the time? It’s perfect! Even if we set the thermostat to 70 degrees, it keeps the room at 65 instead and I appreciate that greatly because I love the cold!” enthuses Kanfield Cole, a junior. 

In some dorms with a common area, the thermostats are sometimes put into one of the bedrooms rather than the common room. As such, the thermostats end up less accessible to the other roommates. However, some have expressed positive feelings towards this otherwise inconvenient setup.

“It is really fun to come back to the room to a different temperature each day. It’s like an ongoing battle between my roommates and I as we all take turns to change the thermostat temperatures whenever the others aren’t present. Sneaking into their bedroom is part of the fun too. I guess the end goal is to get the temperature to stay at your ideal preference. It’s very thrilling, honestly,” remarked Frank Smith, a sophomore.

It seems that most students favor having a thermostat because it allows them to feel like they have control over at least one part of their hectic lives. It gives them a sense of content while also providing their dwellings with the extremities of warmth or coldness that they desire. In all, everyone seems pretty happy.