Students feeling drowsy while studying in Schneider Social Sciences Hall can blame it on the air they are breathing.

A report issued by Facilities Planning and Management states, “Testing has revealed carbon dioxide levels that exceed federal standards during class periods. Students become drowsy and inattentive in class.”

This phrase appears in the Space Management Issues report, posted on UW-Eau Claire’s Web site Oct. 16, but Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said the information on the air quality in Schneider has been available since spring 2001.

Junior Kati Klukas, an English education major, said she uses Schneider Hall for typing papers and sending e-mails in the first floor computer lab, Room 109.

Klukas has felt drowsy and has dozed off, she said, because of the air quality in classrooms.

When shown what the Space Management Issues report says on the carbon dioxide level in Schneider Hall, Klukas gasped and her eyes widened.

“Well that needs to be changed as long as we’re paying for a quality education,” she said.

An e-mail from Soll stated there have been complaints about the temperature and air quality in Schneider for several years.

“Given the design of the building’s HVAC system and the heavy utilization of the building, it is not surprising that there are problems,” Soll said in the e-mail.

The excess carbon dioxide stems from people occupying the rooms and the burden of getting fresh air in falls on the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, known as the HVAC, in the building.

The Space Management Issues report states that the building has one air-handling unit, which was installed when the building was built in 1967. Improvements were made, but they only increased the HVAC efficiency by 3.4 percent.

To alleviate the problem of excess carbon dioxide in rooms, Soll said the university has stopped allowing students to join classes in classrooms with problems and also has moved larger class sections out of the rooms.

Monitoring tests conducted from 2001 through 2003 detected high levels of carbon dioxide. Soll said the tests were initiated to support a request to improve the HVAC systems.

Eau Claire used general workplace standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to measure the air quality in the hall. The standard is 1,000 parts per million for an extended period of time.

Though there is no standard for academic buildings, Soll said the OSHA standard was used to provide support for the request for an improved HVAC system.

To remedy the problem, Soll said estimates for modifying or improving the building’s HVAC system have ranged from $400,000 to $1 million, depending on the changes made. A project on the lower end of the range would be used to address the carbon dioxide problem. Fixing temperature control and improving the overall environment would approach the $1 million price tag.

Senior marketing major Justin Floyd, who spends all of his class time in Schneider, said rooms in the building tend to get stuffy and hot and are not very well ventilated.

“I don’t fall asleep, but it’s definitely hot,” he said. “I think about falling asleep.”

The temperature in some rooms causes his drowsiness, Floyd said. From memory, he said Rooms 216 and 319 were both very warm and the temperature in those rooms distracts him while in class.

“I’d definitely want rooms to be cooler and better ventilated,” he said.

Soll said five rooms – 110, 210, 105, 303 and 225 – were studied and they all exceeded the 1,000 ppm standard for brief periods of time.

Eau Claire is working with the UW System and the Division of State Facilities to get the HVAC system modified or replaced as soon as possible.