By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer

On April 27, the Graduate Student Society (GSS) and Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) issued a joint letter to SFU Residence and Housing regarding concerns over heating and cooling facilities in student residences. The letter alleged that inadequate student housing cooling facilities created a dangerous environment for students to study and live in. This letter was shared with The Peak. 

The Peak reached out to Kody Sider, the director of external relations at the GSS, as well as Hyago Santana Moreira, the SFSS vice-president university and academic affairs. Sider alleged that students were regularly suffering through temperatures above 26℃, which is the province’s legal limit for living spaces according to subsection 9.33.2 of the BC building code. 

“The university has done little to handle heat in the residencies that they manage. Students regularly have to sleep and live in heat upwards of 32℃.” said Sider. SFU has a ban on air-conditioning (AC) units for safety reasons. They cite “potential damage to the property, electrical load limits, and liability,” in addition to “water leakage” and “increased humidity leading to mold growth” as potential concerns. Sider said despite this ban, the university doesn’t provide a suitable replacement for residents. “Students regularly talk [to us] about how when they reach out to housing, housing tells them to just buy a fan or open the window . . . Almost every student that I know who lives in housing already owns at least one fan.” said Sider. “The university’s recommendations are based on the individual, treating it as an individualist issue, even though it’s a systemic issue.” The Peak reached out to SFU for comment, who noted that “students who are concerned about heat in residence are strongly encouraged to reach out to Residence and Housing staff for advice on options and tools to reduce the impact of heat in their unit.”

Moreira added that the university’s accessibility plan has made commitments to accessibility for campus residencies, sharing that “cooling facilities are a matter of medical accommodation.” He said, “SFU has a lot of commitments and they should be looking at our asks not as extraordinary asks, but as part of their own duty in respect to what Senate and what governance has already decided would be good for students, how they should prioritize the well-being of students.”

Sider expressed that the university administration advocates for climate resilient housing, but don’t implement the measures.

“They fail to practice what they preach internally, where they allow students to effectively be baked in their own apartments and then just telling students to get a fan or just not respond to students at all.”

— Kody Sider, director of external affairs at SFU Graduate Student Society

The student societies introduced four recommendations to improve housing conditions on campus in their letter. The first recommendation called for the university to lift the ban on air conditioners. As air conditioners are costly, the university should accommodate vulnerable students and “immediately streamline the process for priority students with medical conditions to install portable, high-efficiency cooling units.” Sider said this process does not currently exist, and different needs should be evaluated individually.  

The letter’s second proposal lists additional short-term measures designed to help students. They suggest the establishment of designated temporary cooling centres at every student residence, supplying air coolers and cooling kits to students. 

The letter’s final two proposals focus on long-term aspects of student housing development at SFU. The student societies call for the university to launch an independent building performance audit to analyze the climate and energy capabilities of each SFU building. Additionally, they propose the university publish a roadmap for thermal infrastructure in a three-year timespan, and install AC infrastructure in places where it is feasible. 

In a statement to The Peak, the director of SFU Housing and Residence Zoe Woods said that arrangements were underway “to prepare for the possibility of a hot summer ahead.” She stated that the preparations were being undertaken in coordination with different SFU departments to support residents at the Vancouver and Burnaby campuses. Woods said that SFU Housing and Residence’s preparations were “accompanied by outreach from the GSS and SFSS” and thanked them “for sharing their concerns.” 

The Peak also corresponded with the SFU Residence Hall Association (RHA), the primary organization that represents students living on campus, about the letter. Outgoing RHA president Vinisha Kadyan said in an email statement that “while the proposals raised by the GSS and SFSS provide a constructive starting point, it is important to consider whether they are sufficient to fully address the problem.” She noted that “some of these solutions may take time to implement and may not provide immediate relief for those currently affected.” 

Additionally, she said her organization believes Residence and Housing should be more concrete and communicative in their approach to cooling residencies by implementing short-term solutions such as “arranging temporary relocation options within cooler residence buildings when indoor temperatures exceed safe limits” while long-term structural changes are undergoing improvements.

Kadyan revealed that the GSS and SFSS did not include the RHA in the joint letter. She noted that “a collaborative approach between student organizations could have strengthened advocacy efforts, and created a more unified response before moving directly to a public joint letter.” She noted that the RHA had been discussing these heat concerns with the university as a “part of broader conversations about student living conditions.”

Moreira said, “At the time when the letter was sent, we would [have] liked to partner with Residence, but they are at a time of transition” and there was confusion surrounding whether they were fully a part of SFU and what decisions they could make. However, Moreira added, “I bet that the students and the RHA will agree with us that changes are needed.”