Students should have cooler classrooms today when NIU air-conditioning systems kick into full swing.

As the mercury neared 90 degrees Wednesday, students and faculty wilted in stuffy classrooms. Flocks of students gathered around instructors for outdoor classes on the grass to escape hot classrooms.

“I have class in DuSable where the ventilation is horrible,” said, who has nine hours a week worth of classes in DuSable Hall.

“I had a class this morning and it was so sticky I didn’t even pay attention,” Morales said.

Richard Farley, Physical Plant refrigeration mechanic foreman, said cooling systems were started Monday, but take a while to tame the heat.

“It turned from winter to summer in one day,” Farley said, adding the classrooms should be cooler today.

Freshman Craig Pecherek works about two hours a day in the Reavis Hall Journalism Reading Room. “It’s been pretty hot, but if you’ve got a fan or something to move around the air, it’s all right,” he said.

“The way they designed the building, all the windows being non-functional, really stinks,” Pecherek said. “We’ve been keeping the doors open to get a breeze.”

All NIU classroom buildings have air conditioning, Farley said. The decision to start cooling systems depends on the weather, which is unusually warm for this time of year, he said.

“I’d like to have some springtime weather instead of summer weather,” Farley said.

NIU air-conditioning costs are hard to estimate, Farley said, because the “large capacity” system is so much greater than household air conditioning.

While a home air conditioner puts out about 3,000 to 3,600 British thermal units, a cooling measure, NIU systems range from 240,000 to 600,000 Btus, he said.