The student centers on the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses will remain overnight on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7 to provide residential students round-the-clock access to air conditioning, university officials announced Wednesday.
Chief of Public Safety Tony Reyes and Associate Vice President for Facilities Operations Keith Woodward notified students via email at approximately 2:30 p.m. that university officials would not close the university’s Carl Hansen or Rocky Top student centers on Wednesday or Thursday night amid a local heatwave in which temperatures have soared into the 90s.
“Starting tonight and continuing through Friday morning, the university will keep both the Carl Hansen Student Center on the Mount Carmel Campus and the Rocky Top Student Center on the York Hill Campus open around the clock,” Reyes and Woodward wrote.
The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for New Haven County, Connecticut, approximately an hour after Quinnipiac officials announced the university’s plan to keep its student centers open overnight. The advisory will remain in effect in Hamden until 8 p.m. Thursday.
Norbert Ponte Jr., Chartwells’ resident district manager at Quinnipiac, subsequently announced the closure of the Bobcat Den for the remainder of the week.
“Please be advised that because of the warm temperatures, the Bobcat Den on the Mount Carmel Campus will be closed for the rest of the day today, Thursday, Sept. 7, and Friday, Sept. 8,” Ponte Jr. wrote in an email to students just after 6 p.m. Wednesday. “Our plan is to re-open the Bobcat Den on Saturday for its regular schedule of 4 p.m. – 12 midnight.”
However, Ponte Jr. said three fresh food stations in Café Q will remain open until 11 p.m. each night the Mount Carmel Campus’ main late-night food station is closed.
Local weather forecasts do not expect temperatures in Hamden — which have remained in the low-90s since Monday — to cool until Friday.
“We know the weather the last few days has been exceptionally hot, making it challenging for students living in residence halls without air conditioning, especially overnight,” Reyes and Woodward wrote in the email. “Students are welcome to come to both (student centers), which are fully air conditioned, to seek relief from the warm temperatures.”
University officials also installed air conditioning units in certain study lounges in two traditionally unairconditioned first-year residence halls on the Mount Carmel Campus, Reyes and Woodward said. Air conditioning is now available in three common rooms in the Commons and two lounges in the Ledges.
Non-residential students without access to air conditioning can contact 2-1-1 of Connecticut to locate public cooling centers, Reyes and Woodward wrote.
Reyes and Woodward said university officials would “continue to carefully monitor the forecast and provide any additional updates as needed.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
