Sweat drips across people’s faces, down their backs and down their hands. Shirts turn into mosaics of perspiration. Students try to hide from the sun under umbrellas and caps. However, the unlucky few waiting for public transportation stay in a bus shelter. The glass walls magnify the heat.

After class ends, students can be seen carrying around green cups from the nearest frozen yogurt shop. In their path, they leave behind sticky splotches of melted yogurt on the pavement.

“It’s really hot,” said Aiden Sup, senior in LAS. “I’m sweating right now all over my body. But I do like it, to be honest.”

According to the National Weather Service, Champaign-Urbana will hit 98 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday.

“What I’ll probably do, and what I do a lot, is just cut through buildings along the (Main Quad) to feel that A/C for like 30 seconds, and then get back out there,” Sup said.

Sup said his classes have not said anything about the heat.

“Maybe I wish they would, because some of the U of I buildings are super, super hot,” Sup said. “(Especially) on certain floors.”

For Emily Gonzalez, sophomore in Media, two of her classes reacted to the heat, she said.

“One of my media camp classes was canceled, and then my statistics class said, ‘If it’s too hot, please stay home,’” Gonzalez said. “So, it’s definitely too hot.”

Gonzalez said she got ice cream with her friends to stay cool that night. 

On the Main Quad, Meghan Vanasco, senior in AHS, had a picnic with her friends after sundown. Sprawled out over the grass, she sat on a blanket and tried to spot dogs walking past.

“We had this little French bulldog run up to us that was clearly struggling,” Vanasco said. “The poor guy was not doing well in the heat at all. So, hopefully he got back home with some water.”

Vanasco thinks the best course of action for students is staying inside.

“There’s really not much to do besides trying to dress for the weather,” Vanasco said. “But that’s hard too because you obviously still want to be respectable in your classes.”

As students moved in, many attributed their sleepiness to their first week of school, she said.

“No, you’re tired because there is an actual heat advisory, like, take some time (for yourself),” she said.

According to AccuWeather, a heat advisory for Central Illinois was enacted on Sunday at 1 p.m. It is stated to end Thursday at 10 p.m.

Staying cool on the way to class is something students will have to think about, Vanasco said.

“When I am outside, I just hold my massive water bottle,” she said. “It’s 64 ounces and I just carry it close to my chest to get between classes.”

Having something at home to look forward to after classes helps, whether that’s cold water or ice cream, Vanesco said.

The State Climatologist Office for Illinois recommends different methods of staying safe and cool during a heat wave. Such methods include wearing light, loose clothing; wearing sunscreen; avoiding foods high in protein to combat high metabolic heat; avoiding salt tablets; and much more. 

“I know freshman year, I lived in Allen where there was no air conditioning and, when it was super hot like this, I would literally sleep with an ice pack,” Vanesco said. “There was just no way around it.”

The heat has made a difference in the student body, Vanesco said.

“People are just sad about it together,” she said. “There’s a communal, miserable smog that I feel like has taken over.”

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