First-years Riley Rossi (left), Gillian Armstrong (middle) and Evelyn Cook (right) form a bed with six pieces of furniture on the second floor of Payson Library on Oct. 5. Photo courtesy of Jordan Baquiran
As temperatures reached 102 degrees in Malibu, Pepperdine students found themselves battling more than just the Southern California sun Oct 4. through Oct. 9.
From sweltering dorm rooms, sweaty walks across campus and camping overnight in Payson Library, students spent numerous hours searching for ways to escape the heat and stay cool throughout the heat wave.
“I thought the weather was always perfect — that it was always in the 70s here,” first-year Ash Warren said. “Gosh I was wrong.”
Dreadful Dorms
For students living on campus, escaping the heat has proven particularly difficult.
Pepperdine’s on-campus residence halls do not have air conditioning and residents are prohibited from installing personal air conditioning units, according to the Facilities, Polices and Procedures page on the Pepperdine Community website. With little relief from the rising temperatures, students said they have endured uncomfortable conditions well into the night.
“I think the highest temperature we got in our room was 91 degrees,” first-year Aeden Scalise said.
For some students, the uncomfortable temperatures have persisted well beyond the recent heat wave.
“It has been above 80 degrees in my room since I’ve gotten here,” Warren said.
Rather than spending downtime in their dorm rooms, students have turned to air-conditioned spaces across campus for relief.
“I literally wake up, I leave the dorm immediately, I go somewhere else,” Scalise said.
The University’s classrooms, dining facilities and library have become popular places to cool off, Scalise said. With air conditioning offering a needed break from the rising temperatures, students said they have found themselves spending more time in shared spaces and less time in their residence halls.
However, staying indoors is only a temporary solution. For students navigating Pepperdine’s hillside campus, even the journey to class can become an uncomfortable experience.
“I walk usually 15 minutes to every class,” Warren said. “When the heat waves come, it’s very brutal.”
Beyond the physical discomfort, arriving to class drenched in sweat can affect students’ confidence and ability to feel comfortable in an academic setting, according to NBC News.
Warren said the heat has made the simple act of walking to class an unpleasant part of his daily routine.
“I’m very uncomfortable. I don’t feel confident within myself,” Warren said. “I feel very unprofessional when I get to class covered in sweat.”
Hacks for the Heat
Students have resorted to creative measures to find relief from the heat.
“I froze a bag of water in a Ziploc bag to sleep with so it’d be cooler and it helped,” sophomore Julia Liang said. “But it obviously can only last for so long [until] I was just hot again.”
Other students have turned to strategic ways of managing airflow and sunlight in their dorm rooms, adjusting their windows and blinds throughout the day to keep temperatures down.
“During the day I have both of the shutters down, but the window open and all the fans on,” Scalise said. “Then at night, we lift up the windows, try to get as much air in as possible.”
Pepperdine Housing and Residence Life (HRL) has taken steps to help students beat the heat. In an Oct. 7 social media post, the department announced it would distribute water, mini Gatorade bottles and electrolyte packets outside the Howard A. White Center (HAWC).
Two Instagram stories posted by Housing and Residence Life (HRL) addressing the heat wave. The final day of HRL’s distribution efforts was Oct. 7. Graphic by Alexa McGlathery
“I really think the administration should fund a project where air conditioning must be in every room,” Warren said. “We need some sort of support from them.”
A Slumber Party in Payson Library
An Oct. 5 email from HRL announced extended hours for Payson Library, allowing students to spend more time dodging the heat.
Seaside Resident Advisor (RA) Emily Lickiss said she and fellow RAs advocated for extended building hours to provide students with greater access to air-conditioned spaces.
“I advocated to our Resident Directors to keep it open 24/7,” Lickiss said. “They reached out to higher ups, then HRL had a bunch of conversations about it and eventually sent out the campus-wide email updating us.”
Sophomore Alexander Yong, a Rockwell Towers resident, set up a tent on the second floor of Payson Library on Oct. 5. Yong said the floor was too hard, so he put a sleeping pad inside his tent along with a blanket and pillow. Photo by Jordan Baquiran
Liang said she decided to sleep in the library overnight.
“I’m choosing to sleep in the library because it’s so hot in my dorm,” Liang said.
Lickiss also chose to sleep in the library. She said the dorm has made it difficult to complete assignments and sleep, as her room was 96 degrees on Oct. 4.
“The ACE (Academic Center for Excellence) is nice to sleep in because it’s one of the only places in the library where you can turn off the lights,” Lickiss said. “It’s also quieter in here because there’s less foot traffic.”
Senior Emily Lickiss and sophomore Julia Liang get ready for bed with blankets and pillows on their makeshift beds in the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) on Oct. 5. The pair said they brought their backpacks, toothbrushes and a change of clothes so they could conveniently go directly to their respective 9 a.m. classes the next morning. Photo by Jordan Baquiran
Lickiss and Liang said they were unsure about where they would sleep for the rest of the week, as the heat wave lasted through Oct. 9, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Honestly, I was very unaware that the dorms didn’t have air-conditioning here,” Warren said. “We need it bad.”
This story was copy edited by Haylie Ross.
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Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Alexa McGlathery via email: alexa.mcglathery@pepperdine.edu
Contact Jordan Baquiran via email: jordanisabel.baquiran@pepperdine.edu
