Cherubs face the cold in dorm rooms, Fisk lecture hall

By Lynn Zukerman

The first night of the 2007 journalism cherubs program, Laurel Stankus of Burr Ridge, Ill. was freezing. She slept with pajamas, sweatpants, jeans, two pairs of socks, three shirts, a comforter, a fleece blanket and a towel.
           
“I couldn’t get warm,” Stankus said. “It was terrible. It took us two days to figure out how to change the temperature.”
           
Because Chicago is generally hot during the summer months, some cherubs do not pack warm clothing. However, both the dorm rooms and Fisk Room 217, the program's main lecture hall, can get very cold.
           
“I had my parents bring up blankets and extra sweatshirt,” Stankus said. “I asked for my heaviest sweatshirt. I never would have thought I’d need it as much as I do.”

A view of Ana Cosma's neatly lined closet.

Cherub Nicole Friedman of Piedmont, Calif. called her mom and asked her to send more sweatshirts, she said. She also bought an extra blanket for her bed.
           
The Northwestern maintenance staff is in charge of controlling the thermostat in the Fisk lecture hall, Professor Roger Boye said.

“Fisk has a very strange air-conditioning system it’s cold at first but you don't adjust to it. The longer you sit there the colder you get,” Friedman said. “It seeps into your skin and it’s miserable.”

After walking outside, many cherubs said they do not realize that they might actually need a jacket.

“I was told that Fisk was pretty cold, but I kind of just laughed it off,” Stankus said. “I thought it wouldn’t be a huge deal, and I would just wear shorts and T-shirt like I had outside. During lunch break I raced back to my dorm room for a sweatshirt. Now I always have a small jacket in my bag.”
           
But there are always a few students who do not mind the cold.
           
“I’m the type of person who cannot sleep unless it’s absolutely freezing,” said cherub Jasmine White from New Orleans. “I want to feel like I’m in the arctic.”
           
Some people like it warm and some people like it cold, Boye said. It is impossible to make everyone happy.
           
When coming to Northwestern, students have to remember to pack clothes for all types of weather including thunderstorms, cherubs said.

"In California it doesn't just rain in the summer, and when it rains it's cold," Friedman said. "It is really unnatural for it to every rain in the summer but you get used to it: the warm rain."

Stankus recalled the saying she always heard growing up in the midwest.

"If you don’t like the weather in Chicago, wait two hours," she said.