From Sept. 4 to Sept. 10, Southern California experienced scorching temperatures, with multiple days with high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, marking the tail-end of one of the area’s hottest summers ever recorded. Throughout the heat wave, students, faculty and staff members across the 5Cs sought various strategies to make the heat more bearable.
One of the biggest challenges students faced was the lack of air conditioning in certain dorms. At Claremont McKenna College, where the North Quad Dorms are not equipped with AC units, some students were forced to seek alternative sleeping arrangements. For many, this meant retreating to the Mid Quad and South Quad lobbies.
“My buddy Jesus slept in the Crown lobby,” Caden Lewis CM ’28 said, referring to his friend who lives in North Quad. “People were offering him spots in their rooms.”
This situation is not unique to CMC. Since experiencing technical problems with their AC, some residents of the Mary Routt Residence Hall at Scripps College have been forced to get similarly creative.
“Two nights ago, my roommates and I actually had to sleep in the kitchen of our hall because our room was so unbearably hot,” Mariana Barr SC ‘28 said.
At Pomona College, where only five of the 16 residence halls are fully equipped with air-conditioning, students were encouraged to sleep in air-conditioned common areas. These included the lounges in Harwood, Smiley, Clark I, Clark III and Wig, where facilities and campus services placed mattresses for students to use.
According to a TSL article from 2014, the college has been dealing with extreme heat in the same way for years, despite calls from students for the administration to do more.
While some Pomona students expressed disappointment with the college’s handling of the heat wave, Alexandra Emerson PZ ‘25 expressed disappointment with Pitzer College’s lack of any heat mitigation resources.
“I actually don’t think I’ve seen any heat mitigation resources around at Pitzer,” Emerson said. “CMC was handing out ice cream one day, and I’ve seen a lot of water at Pomona, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything up at Pitzer.”
Other students, including athletes whose sports practice outdoors, commented on how the heat wave impacted their daily activities. Many 5C sports teams reported a significant drop in practice attendance.
Sydney Tai PO ‘26, captain of the 5C club tennis team, Claremont Coyotes, said that only 50 of the anticipated 100 participants showed up to practice.
Other athletes have adapted to the heat by scheduling practices and games early in the morning or late in the day, moving practices indoors, lowering the intensity of activities, increasing the amount of water breaks and installing mist machines to help each other stay cool.
Some have also found alternatives to conventional practices.
“We ended up hosting a watch party for the US Open,” Tai said.
Similarly, the 5C women’s frisbee team hosted an indoor social where players watched and discussed a game instead of participating in a typical practice.
Notwithstanding the extreme temperatures and broken or limited ACs, Lewis found a silver lining in the recent heatwave.
“I think the heat almost brought us together,” he said. “We’re gonna look back on this. ‘Remember when we had that big ass heat wave?’ And I think it’s cool. It’s a part of the SoCal experience.”
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