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From: Office of the President
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 11:37 AM
To: All Faculty; All Staff
Subject: Memorandum to the College Community

Last fall, the Air Conditioning Committee was formed to review the College's current guidelines on campus air conditioning and to establish general principles and priorities for air conditioning spaces across campus. Recommendations put forth as a result of the Committee's work needed to consider both the financial and environmental costs of air conditioning.

I have received the Committee's recommendation and am impressed with both the approach taken and the thoroughness of the Committee. I applaud and greatly appreciate their efforts. Under the leadership of Chair Michael Geisler and supported by professional engineers and environmental consultants, the committee members Kristen Anderson, Mark Gleason, Ann Hanson, Nan Jenks-Jay, Michael Katz, George McPhail, and Mike Moser learned about thermal comfort and created a general framework to guide the development of their recommendations.

The full text of their recommendations is on the Web (College Administration News and Announcements on the Secretary of the College's web site). Among those that impact the entire summer community are that certain measures to increase thermal comfort should be taken during sustained periods of extreme heat; that classrooms and lecture halls that cannot be sufficiently cooled down by natural ventilation and fans will be air conditioned; that residential space will not be air conditioned except for those accommodations approved by the ADA office; that, in general, office spaces will not be air conditioned unless in a centrally air conditioned building or meeting other specific criteria; that facilities with air conditioning will have an air conditioning set-point of 78؛ Fahrenheit; that no one may install their own window air conditioning units; and that social and recreational spaces on campus not currently air conditioned by central means will not be air conditioned because the use of such space is voluntary. The Committee has identified that "… the College's priority for the cooling of spaces is to employ natural ventilation techniques and behavior changes whenever possible. Supplemental use of mechanical devices will be considered only when absolutely necessary. Through effective new building design and retrofits to existing structures - via building orientation, well-insulated envelopes, and devices to limit summer solar radiation intrusion (e.g. window shades) - the College is committed to minimizing the need for future mechanical cooling systems."

After reviewing these recommendations and discussing them with Senior Administration, I endorse them and have asked that they be implemented as soon as possible. Although not all the actions required of Facilities Management can be completed before the end of this summer, I have asked that prioritization occur to provide as much relief as possible. Any decision to air condition an academic or residential space will require the approval of Ron Liebowitz. Likewise, Bob Huth will need to approve any air conditioning requests for administrative space.

Please join me in thanking all those who participated in this process to help make our summer work at the College be more comfortable and environmentally friendly.

John M. McCardell, Jr.

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