As the late summer heat is ruling over the south, students are searching for air conditioned routes and the need for fresh air from an open window. However, residential students are not allowed to open their windows in the dorms and this is why, but also how the students are feeling about it.

“It makes me very sad that we can’t open the windows because with an open window, it feels like home and you can breath better,“ residential student senior Jay Jay Ugbe said. “The air conditioning just makes me feel locked inside. I would rather just have fresh air sometimes, and I wish that the school could do something about it.”

The locked window-subject is bringing up many thoughts and feelings amongst residential students but most students don’t actually know why the windows are unable to open.

“I don’t really know why, but probably so that students can’t sneak out after hours” sophomore Anna Jung said.

Other students echoed that thought.

“Maybe it is to prevent the use of vapes, not being able to make the smell go away,” senior Omar Hamad said.

But why the windows are not allowed to be opened is not really a question of distrust amongst students says Brant Evans, Dean of Student Life, it is rather a question about security and money.

“We don’t want the air conditioning to run while an open window is taking in heat from outside, we have to think about the integrity of our heating and air systems, those are not cheap,” Evans said. “It’s also somewhat risky to have open windows, I have seen students on the roof before and we want to prevent it from happening again”

The school’s faculty understands why many students want to be able to open their windows and are definitely open for solutions and bigger discussions surrounding the subject. As for now, the thought of safety for the students is prior one.

“As an adult I’d prefer having a opportunity for some fresh air into my house, but at the same time I want to assure the safety of the student on campus,” Associate Dean of Student Life Jennifer Rundles said.

But the thought of a solution, in order to let the students open their windows seems to be in process.

“A solution could be if there was a way that we could insure that windows were open only when they should be open, and they were not open when they shouldn’t be open,” said Evans.

According to students the question should of course concern safety, but also trust.

“I think that it is a part of Darlington’s motto Honor Above Everything that you should trust the students,” Ugbe said. “ You should trust the students with that privilege of saying ‘If we believe in honor, we expect you to also believe in it and we’re gonna give you freedoms, such as being able to open the windows, and we just expect that you respect those freedoms’.”