It is a little early for April Fools; it is only October after all, so please take this with full seriousness. Only a few weeks ago it was 90 degrees outside, and around 50 degrees inside. OK, maybe it wasn’t 50 degrees, but it was around 70. What is the problem with that, you ask? 

I cannot be the only one who thinks these extreme temperature differences are ridiculous. When it is really hot outside, I just want to be wearing shorts, a skirt or anything light.  Sorry, I don’t want to boil in my own body. So far so good, right?

Well, here’s the catch, if I do wear shorts I will freeze while being inside. And maybe I’m crazy, but shivering isn’t at the top of my list of things I want to be doing in class. 

A few weeks ago I decided to wear jeans, which I thought would be a good compromise. Well, I thought wrong. I was boiling outside and freezing inside. And let’s just say, I wasn’t happy about that. 

I have a friend who carries around a hoodie to wear inside. Let me say that again, he carries around a hoodie to wear inside. Inside. The place where we are supposed to be comfortable. Not to say he’s wrong in doing so, but he shouldn’t have to do that. 

Please don’t get me wrong, air conditioning is one of the greatest inventions, but it should also be used within reason. And I really do not see a reason to have such extreme temperature changes. 

Since most people still think I’m crazy for thinking this, I decided to do some research. According to WebMD, cold-causing viruses survive best in a low-humidity, cold environment, which is exactly the environment that is created. Great, right? 

Thankfully, I am not the only one who feels that these crazy changes in temperature aren’t good for you. Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University in Wales (I love that this is someone’s real title), in a Wall Street Journal article explains how this can lead to you getting a cold, along with the general feeling of discomfort. 

Human beings are warm-blooded animals, so when they are in a cold environment after being in the summer heat, the body “will do whatever it can to defend itself against chilling,” said Eccles. This is also what leads to shivering in some cases.

This then leads to a decrease in the amount of blood flow, which means that there is also less of the white blood cells that typically fight bacteria and viruses. This allows small risk factors to easily turn into a full-blown cold. Although this will not happen unless the bacteria or virus is already present in the body, who wants to give bacteria a nice environment to spread? The fact that we are coming from outside, where it is really hot, doesn’t help with cold prevention. We all sweat; it’s normal, and it can increase the risk of getting a cold because it will keep the body cold for longer. And this process happens every time we go through such temperature changes. 

I may be crazy, but I hated the week I was sick. At the beginning of the school year. In the summer. Before flu season. 

Furthermore, if there is already bacteria present in the space where the air conditioning is on, it just spreads the bacteria around. And air conditioners themselves can be places for mold and bacteria to multiply if they are not properly maintained, and we really don’t know how well maintained they are. Flying bacteria in the air, just what all of us need in addition to all the crap we already have to deal with. 

I am not against air conditioning, nor do I want it to seem like pure evil. I just want it to be used within reason. Nobody wants it to be the same temperature inside as outside, but there shouldn’t be such a large difference between the two. 

Being in a hot classroom isn’t a comfortable environment, but being in Antarctica is also far from ideal. Isn’t the point of temperature regulation inside making people comfortable? Please, Brandeis, chill with the A.C. usage.