<p>If you are stuck in a dorm with no a/c, can you bring your own small window unit, or one of the portable ones that vent through the window? If bring-your-own-a/c is not "officially" encouraged, is it at least "unofficially" tolerated?</p>
<p>Please don't try to tell me it's not so bad without a/c in August. I have lived in North Carolina many years, long enough to know that when it is in the 90s and the humidity is high enough to drown in, it is next to impossible to get a decent night's sleep without a/c....</p>
<p>i don't think it's tolerated -- i think there are penalties (whether it's as simple as having it removed, or even getting fined) for bringing your own ac and getting caught with one. i've only ever heard of one person sneaking in their own small window unit, to be quite honest.</p>
<p>but i do agree with you - i've had ac for my three years at duke and am living in an apt with central ac next year and can't imagine not having it. when my ac wasn't working well this past year i almost went insane.</p>
<p>anyway- if you have allergies or asthma or anything like that, definitely see a doctor.</p>
<p>It's not unofficially tolerated at all - there are multi-hundred-dollar fines associated with having an air conditioner in your room in a non-AC dorm. It really isn't that bad without AC. It's an annoyance, but the majority of the freshman class manages just fine, and so has every freshman class before yours. If you have a genuine medical condition (even one as potentially mild as "seasonal allergies") then its relatively easy to get an air conditioner. If you're lucky your roommate will have a medical reason for an air conditioner and you get both air conditioning and only pay the price of a non-air-conditioned room. Otherwise, do what everyone else does and buy a bunch of cheap fans.</p>
<p>It's mostly humidity that's a problem...the heat can be fixed by fans, but humidity is something you really need a/c for. I assume you get used to it after a while though.</p>
<p>Yeh you get used to it, just have a lot of fans and get through the first few weeks and you will never need AC again for the rest of the year. (it doesn't get hot enough at the end of the year to need AC)</p>
<p>Also, another thing people do that isn't "officially" endorsed is sleeping in the common room which is airconditioned. The only thing about this is that they can get crowded once people start doing that and you need to get out fairly early as the cleaning staff needs to get in there to clean. (if people start sleeping there and not getting out in time RLHS will crack down)</p>
<p>And don't forget the mold in the A/C vents in Edens (on west campus) last fall. The A/C had to be shut down in the fall. Then in the spring one student assigned to Edens told my D that she would wake up in the morning and there would be mold spores on top of her bedding each and every morning. Hope they fixed that problem over the summer - mold is difficult to eradicate from buildings once it has gotten a foothold.</p>
<p>Yeah, I heard the mold problem in Edens was pretty bad last year. Hopefully they cleared that up over the summer. I'm going to live in the building next door next year.</p>
<p>Poor Edens too! Not only do the people there get stuck really far from everything but then they lost their AC! I felt really sorry for my friends who lived in that section of Edens.</p>