I'm writing in response to the article you published about sick buildings ["Something in the air," March 22]. As a McGill student in physics and math, a good half of my lecture courses are given in arguably the ugliest eyesore on campus, a 13-storey slab of concrete called Burnside Hall. A testament to '70s architecture, classrooms in this building have no windows, offer bleak fluorescent lighting and are badly ventilated.

For anyone even slightly claustrophobic, attending classes in this building is a nightmare. Nonetheless, offices and lecture rooms for the departments of mathematics, geography and atmospheric and oceanic sciences, as well as the McGill Computing Centre, are located in Burnside and there are a large number of people who depend on it for their work and study. Recently, in a decision that I can only imagine was economically driven, the McGill administration decided to turn off the ventilation system for all of Burnside Hall on Fridays and weekends.

For students and staff of the three departments who work and study in this building, this move has been disastrous. Like so many modern buildings, Burnside's air-tight design is completely reliant on a constant circulation of fresh air; with the ventilation off, it goes well past the marker of a "sick" building. The computer lab in which I work, housing 10 computers in a small, box-like room, becomes like a sauna, with 30-plus degree temperatures and an unbreathable air supply. Other labs, lecture rooms and offices in the building become similarly unbearable with the ventilation off. The general response to the move by the administration among staff has been the same: frustration and disbelief.

A petition is currently circulating and e-mails have been sent to faculty in the building about this issue, but amazingly the situation remains the same. In the face of requests that the ventilation system be left on during weekends and on Fridays, the administration has agreed only to have a meeting on the issue. In July. In the meantime, the staff and students who use Burnside every day are left holding their breath, literally.

--Chris Salzberg