With the warmth of the spring season approaching, students are having problems with uncomfortable temperatures in residence housing.

“This is the annual time of year for the air-conditioning complaint,” said Adam Griffin, director of student housing.

As the weather changes, some students said they are frustrated with temperatures in their rooms and not being able to change them.

Adam Hancock, sophomore political science major, said he has had problems with discomfort in his room.

“It’s really hot,” Hancock said, “and at night it’s really cold.”

Mike Hines, junior health promotion and wellness major, said he wants to be comfortable with the different temperature changes throughout the day.

“The heat doesn’t work when I want it to and the air conditioning doesn’t work when I want it to,” Hines said. “I come out the shower sometimes and the room is cold. I want some heat.”

Griffin said the Physical Plant, which is responsible for the heating and cooling of buildings on campus, has to look at the long term forecast and not the day by day. With Missouri weather constantly changing, he said students are not able to change the room temperatures from warm to cool anytime they please.

“There is some planning that has to go in,” he said. “If it’s cold for a couple of days, they’re going to turn the heat up as high as they can to stay warm. Then if it gets hot outside, they don’t have air to cool it back down.”

Bob Harrington, director of the Physical Plant, said there is a process that goes into cooling and heating the campus.

“Our system is set up the way that the whole school was designed for all types of purposes on what’s called the two pipe mechanical system,” Harrington said.

Harrington said while he has received several calls about air conditioning problems, students need to understand the heating and cooling system on campus is not like the thermostat units in their homes.

“In the system that we have throughout the college where all the water that’s cooling or heating the system is coming from one or two basic locations, you have to pump that throughout the entire system,” Harrington said. “And to change that, you have to drain that whole system out, shut off the boilers, turn on the chillers and fill the cooling tower.”

Harrington said when trying to convert the entire campus from heating to cooling, a delay up to four days should be expected.

“We can either provide heating or we can provide cooling, but I cannot provide both,” he said.

Griffin said students should take simple measures to keeping themselves cool.

Hancock said there is an alternative solution to students feeling comfortable with the conflicting weather.

“It is Joplin, the wind is usually blowing in Joplin,” Griffin said. “You can open your window and get a pretty decent breeze coming through.”

Hancock said there is an alternative solution to students feeling comfortable with the conflicting weather.

“Maybe they should put some modern air conditioners in each to where you can switch back and forth,” he said. “You pay $2,500 a semester [dash] you at least expect better living conditions.”