San Jose State students are feeling the heat this week, with Tuesday having the highest recorded temperature since 2017 in San Jose, according to reports from the National Weather Service Bay Area.
The California Independent System Operator on Tuesday extended a call for consumers to reduce energy consumption because of the impact of record-breaking temperatures that have created higher demand for power, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) webpage.
Heat-related outages have begun across the Bay Area with parts of East and West San Jose having power outages, affecting thousands of people, according to PG&E’s outage map webpage.
The California Independent System Operator issued an energy emergency alert using a scale that gauges how severe the situation is. The state is currently at level three, where the power grid is unable to meet the demand for energy, leading to power outages across California, according to the same PG&E webpage.
Interim president Steve Perez asked in a Sept. 2 campuswide email for students, faculty and staff to help assist in reducing power usage particularly in the late afternoon and early evening.
“Reduction of power usage allows us to conserve and utilize our generators to power the most critical campus operations and to minimize service disruptions to the campus,” Perez said. “. . . SJSU’s Cogeneration Plant can supply much of our daily campus electrical needs, but we still are required to purchase electricity through PG&E.”
Mikaela Dorch, digital media art senior who commutes to San Jose State from Dublin, said her neighborhood experienced a two-hour power outage on Monday.
The extreme temperatures is caused by a heat dome enveloping the Bay Area trapping hot air over the western U.S., which triggered the intense temperatures over Labor Day weekend. However, temperatures are expected to drop by the end of the week, according to a Sept. 1 San Francisco Chronicle article.
Michelle Smith McDonald, SJSU senior director for strategic communication, said the university is monitoring weather forecasts and educating community members on how to prevent heat-related illnesses and make sure they are staying cool.
“In particular, as we move around campus, we want to continue to remind all students, staff and faculty to stay hydrated,” Smith McDonald said in an email. “Additionally, student organizations have issued an advisory that campus hosted activities scheduled to take place outside today and tomorrow be postponed and/or moved inside and are asking student organizations to do the same.”
Student residents living on campus in residential buildings are feeling the heat. Abhi, a SJSU student currently living at Washburn, said the rooms are hotter than outside temperatures.
“I can’t sleep in Washburn, the walls are radiating heat,” Abhi said.
Students are able to access Campus Village B (CVB) and Campus Village 2 (CV2) in case their rooms get too hot and housing is directly communicating with students on what they can do to stay cool without air conditioning, Smith McDonald said.
“We are able to access other halls but I live in Washburn so I still have to walk over and if I need to sleep in my bed, it’s very difficult,” Abhi said. “There’s two major housing buildings without AC, leaving the situation a bit screwed.”
Some students voiced concerns that certain buildings on campus would be too hot for classes on Tuesday.
As PG&E was shutting off power in certain parts of San Jose, economics junior Jacki Owens said her power was out for 12 hours. Owens said she had to throw out all her groceries at home in West San Jose and still endure through her Tuesday classes.
“[Classes] in Duncan or Dudley Moorhead Hall are so hot to me and opening a window does not help at all,” she said. “Today, [the] cops were passing out water bottles and I had to chill in my friend’s dorm for a bit before I headed home today after walking through campus.”
Smith McDonald said the university adjusted some class schedules to accommodate students and faculty during the heatwave.
“We will be communicating frequently with staff and faculty. We are asking students to check in through Canvas and read emails from professors to find out if anything has changed. Changes could [affect] classes in the late morning through the afternoon for the next several days,” Smith McDonald said.
Owens said her professors sent emails about the heat and changed how classes were being held.
“Two of my classes actually sent out emails moving the class online as professors are finding it way too hot in the buildings,” Owens said.
Coincidentally, during the heatwave, SJSU hosted a “Float and Watch” event at the Spartan Aquatic and Recreation Center Tuesday, where students were invited to swim while watching “Finding Nemo'' on the big screen and were offered pizza and ice cream.
Louise Ekeroth, an international business administration and economics student, said the event was a great opportunity to socialize with other students and cool off from the hot weather.
“[I’m] definitely not used to this since I’m from Sweden and it can definitely be overwhelming, so it’s nice to have a place to cool off,” Ekeroth said.
Alexia Villena, industrial design junior who worked the event, said the Student Union Inc. plans movie nights at different places on campus every year.
“This is our first event of the year and it’s to get more students excited about school, to go to school and excited about San Jose,” Villena said. “It actually just timed well. All the events that you see throughout the school year, they’re already planned out ahead of time. So I guess it just timed out well because of the heat wave.”
