CCSF Faculty, Students Suffer in Sweltering or Freezing Classrooms

Drastic classroom temperatures continue to make learning difficult for students and teachers at City College of San Francisco.

The issue is front of mind for many in the campus community as another winter approaches. Until recently, multiple CCSF buildings lacked heat and functional boilers. But even as some repairs have been made, some classrooms are sweltering hot while others continue to lack heat at all, students and a faculty member told KQED.

“These heating issues are really unacceptable and non-conducive to learning,” said City College Board of Trustees President Alan Wong. “I have a lot of anger when I hear about students who have to use hand warmers in class. We need to push and continue to make progress on this, or we risk losing students.”

In some classrooms, students wear heavy jackets and use hand warmers when small space heaters provided by the college haven’t been enough to bring temperatures above even 60 degrees.

“I always feel very cold. I wear a big coat and other people in the class feel the same way. Our professor brought his own space heater to our class,” said Yoanna Li, whose biology class at the Ocean campus doesn’t have heating.

Others are having a polar opposite experience. Nicole Barens, who teaches English as a Second Language classes at the college’s Mission campus, said her classroom thermostat has been stuck at unusually high temperatures for weeks, causing her and her students to sweat through classes.

“I am not kidding when I say that all of us are sweating to the point where I have to bring a towel or bandanna to class. And I’m not the only teacher dealing with that. There are a few of us, and it’s been exhausting,” Barens said. “Not to mention the fact that COVID is an issue and students aren’t masking, and so there’s no air circulation.”

The Mission campus had no heating for much of last winter, Mission Local first reported. But after students and faculty raised the issue last winter, the administration agreed to repair a broken boiler on campus. Now that it’s been repaired, a new issue has emerged where some classrooms can’t turn down the heat, Barens said.

The heat has impacted her and her students’ ability to get through lessons, she added.

“It definitely affects motivation levels. It’s hard enough to focus after a full day of work, let alone when you’re sweating and stuffy,” Barens said.

The school’s administration held an emergency meeting in March to respond to the frigid temperatures. Since then, broken boilers have been replaced at the Mission campus and John Adams campus, located near the Panhandle.

But a lack of heat remains a problem at the school’s Ocean campus.

“It affects me a lot. And the weather is getting colder,” said Li. “I bring a big coat, but I can’t concentrate in class.”

Barens has seen that side of the issue too, as a photography student at CCSF at the Ocean campus.

“I was going to the lab in a visual arts building, and the photo lab was in the basement, and it was freezing in there. Absolutely freezing. They had some space heaters, but it couldn’t heat a whole room,” Barens said. “After an hour in there, my feet would be frozen. I think that definitely affected people’s desire to work.”

The college is also working to replace the HVAC system at its Rosenberg Library.

San Francisco’s community college is a lifeline for students looking to start their educational journey, advance or change careers, or otherwise enrich their lives.

But Wong, the board president, has received several complaints about the cold temperatures since last winter and said some students have had to drop classes because of the issue.

“I started getting tagged on Instagram by students taking pictures of the classroom thermometer. They were emailing me about the heating issues at the visual arts building at the Ocean Campus,” Wong said. “It’s a campus-wide facilities issue, and we really need to make sure we are taking care of these heating issues so we aren’t losing students.”

At a Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, campus facilities officials said that heating in the visual arts building should be restored by Spring 2024.

Alberto Vasquez, associate vice chancellor of construction and planning, said at Tuesday’s meeting that the response has faced delays due to supply chain issues and general funding for the projects.

Currently, there are no specific plans to move students to another classroom if the heating issues persist through the winter, Wong said, but campus officials said options are under consideration. However, that will be difficult for classes like photography, which require specific lab equipment.

Last March, the Board of Trustees allocated more than $2 million to replace the boilers and increase the college’s facilities and grounds staff by 2025.

“There needs to be a long-term solution rather than a Band-Aid,” Wong said. “I’m going to continue to monitor and ensure our college is prioritizing this. The heat should be on us to get our students warm classrooms.”