On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning through the weekend in various locations in Illinois, including the cities of Champaign and Urbana. At 2:36 p.m., the University issued a Massmail outlining suggested procedures in response to the extreme heat.
According to The Weather Channel, the temperature in Champaign-Urbana rose to 98 degrees Fahrenheit, but with current heat indices and humidity, it felt like 115 degrees on Thursday afternoon. This was the peak of the heat wave.
The Massmail sent by Ehab Kamarah, the associate vice chancellor and executive director for Facilities & Services, urged the campus community to conserve energy. According to the Massmail, there is a newly established “Maximum Generation Emergency Event” to which the University must comply by reducing electricity produced in the regional electrical grid.
The release also offered ways to conserve energy, including shutting windows in rooms with air conditioning and turning off electronic devices that are not currently being used.
Along with tips to conserve energy, the Illinois Department of Public Health also released tips to stay safe during the extreme heat. It included modes of protection against heat exhaustion and heat stroke, including plenty of fluid intake.
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Similarly, Iowa State University has had infrastructural damage impacting their learning environment. In a release sent out by Iowa State administration on Thursday, they reported that their campus power plant had caught on fire and is impacting their cooling systems.
Though no injuries were reported, all classes at Iowa State on Thursday and Friday have been moved online. The release also encouraged students living in residence halls to go home, if possible.
All Champaign Unit 4 schools were not in session Thursday due to the weather. The release notifying parents and guardians said that “many (of our cooling systems) are not running at optimal levels” and that “systems at two of our largest campuses … have suffered major failures, impacting critical portions of the buildings.”
The board came to the decision after considering that students would be in danger both on buses and in buildings.
According to Champaign Unit 4 website, most schools will be open on Friday. However, Centennial High School and Edison Middle School will remain closed for “not operating as needed.”
School bus services at Champaign schools will also be canceled on Friday, according to the site.
According to the Urbana School District #116 website, all Urbana schools will be opened Friday. However, Urbana Middle School may close if the air conditioner stops sufficiently cooling the building.
Urbana’s yellow school bus services will continue running on Friday, according to the site. However, the school district urges parents to pick up their children from school if possible.
In the Champaign-Urbana area, the heat wave is expected to start cooling down towards the weekend. Most students walk or bike to school, but not many classes have been canceled due to the heat.
According to Robin Kaler, associate chancellor of strategic communications and marketing at the University of Illinois, it is up to the discretion of each instructor to move classes online and whether “an instructor feels the weather is not conducive to learning.”
