I’m sweating the small stuff.

Actually, I sweat all kinds of stuff. Anybody who I friended on Facebook or who might know me as that one guy from that thing with the place will tell you: I sweat walking to class in the snow (so this is very near and dear to me).

But if you’re in my old sweating grounds of Easton Hall this year, then I’m sweating you.

Fortunately for me, I only had to spend one semester without air conditioning. It was enough. I mean, granted, there are billions of people out there with worse predicaments than spending some time without A/C, and it’s not lost on me. But some of us are paying something close to $30,000 a year, aren’t we? (Full disclosure: I’m in-state.) You’d think some of that money would go toward the “let’s not be horribly uncomfortable” fund.

I remember one of the first times I came to the campus, when somebody told me that the “M” in the middle of the traffic circle costs an entire out-of-state tuition in upkeep. That’s peachy. It’s also about 100 air conditioning units. Just saying – every year, kids come to college and get a horrible first impression because it gets so hot in those dorm rooms.

This year, there’s air conditioning in Cumberland Hall, and administrators say it should be coming to other North Campus dorms within the next few years, but the anticipation is too much.

Maybe it’s all just some clever plan to keep interest up in the student elections. This year, let’s mark the sapphire anniversary of campaign posters in Easton Hall declaring, “I’ll get air conditioning!” with a big “It’s been since ’63 and still no heat for me!” banner. I’m sure the university will fund it; they’ll fund anything as long as it has nothing to do with keeping cool.

It’s just odd for me to look around the campus and see all of the construction going on, with Tawes getting a makeover and the new journalism building coming soon. That’s all nice, and it looks good on a brochure, but it’s about time the dorms got a long, hard look.

I get the whole “Get outside your dorm room and make friends! Do crazy college things! Experiment! Put up Facebook pictures that will make sure you never get employed!” idea, but you gotta sleep somewhere. And if there’s one thing I do better than sweat, it’s sleep – and I’ll tell you, nothing beats a good night’s sleep. Unequivocally, the dorms without A/C are so uncomfortably hot that it was nearly impossible to sleep at all in my first two weeks on the campus.

The dorms aren’t going to turn into luxury villas anytime soon. They’re not going to magically widen and lengthen and go months without being free of urine in places that aren’t toilets. But air conditioning is a possibility that’s a huge leap forward.

Last year, they installed a peep hole in my door in La Plata Hall. If you were ready to tell me the university has been making fiscal sense, I’ll pause and allow you to read the last sentence again. Grand.

I got lucky this year. I’m in South Campus Commons. It will be cool. But for a lot of freshmen coming to their dream school, they won’t be able to get off on the total right foot because it’s too hot in their rooms. It’s like they say about first impressions: You only get one. The people who make those kinds of decisions here are really spoiling theirs.

It should be enough to make them sweat.

Rob Gindes is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at rgindes@umd.edu.