Temperatures rise over lack of air con in dormitories

A university in East China's Jiangsu province denied on June 20 that it would expel a student who represented students in asking for air conditioners to be installed in dormitories.

Chen Jingshan, a junior at Nanjing Audit University, published a proposal online on June 18 appealing for the school to install air conditioners in dormitories due to the recent heat wave, according to a report by www.chinanews.com two days later.

Rumors spread on the Internet saying Chen would be expelled because of his proposal, stirring public anger against the school authority, according to the report.

The university made a statement on its official Sina Weibo account, saying that before the proposal Chen had published another online post about the school's investigation of students, but insisted, "The school never made a decision to expel him."

In an interview with a local news website, Chen said the school had linked his post to an incident on the night of June 18, when some students threw thermoses out of their windows and refused to sleep in the dormitories.

The city experienced a heat wave earlier this week with recorded temperatures of up to 36.4 C.

University students in other so-called "oven cities," such as Chongqing and Wuhan, have also been calling for air conditioners to be installed in their dormitories.