We lucky freshmen up on the hill, or at least in my hall, Nason, don’t have to pay for a spa treatment. Just bring some nice cucumber slices from Commons up into your dorm room, turn on some nice music and there you have it—a trip to a New York City spa minus the candles and time for travel! And who needs to go away and spend all that money for spring break? Bring a kiddie pool up to the room, open the blinds to let the sun in, and you are all set!

Wonderful, don’t you think?

Not really. First of all, I’m the kind of person who likes my room so that it is twenty degrees colder than the rest of my house, but I’m satisfied so long as you can breathe in a room. The dorms, on the other hand, are stuffy, and you can’t even open your window enough to make it bearable. I thought I’d only have a problem for the first few months with the summer weather, but I didn’t account for the heating during the winter.

Now, more importantly, think of it this way: How much energy is being wasted if, for example, every single window in Nason Hall is open right now above the heaters? Can you see the dollar bills flying out the window yet? If you don’t care yet, let me try again. Can you see the dollar bills that pay for room and board each semester flying out the window?

For a school of more mathematically—and scientifically-minded—students, we should care more about the massive amount of energy being wasted because of this situation—or, if you prefer, the money aspect of the heating. And it’s not just the heaters that waste energy in the room. Think about all the desk fans and even tower fans that are plugged in and running the entire day because people are ridiculously hot during the middle of winter—not to mention the problems that it creates between roommates due to the noise.