As the temperature rose into the mid-90s on Thursday afternoon, Frank Marino made his way to the basement of Richards Hall, where he and a group of alumni are building a glider to compete in the Red Bull Flugtag competition later this month in Boston. In the morning, he’d been in the mechanic shop in Forsyth doing some aluminum building, and now he was sweating it out in Richards, working with a hot-wire foam cutter.

“It’s hot down here, and this isn’t helping,” Marino, E’16, said of using the tool, half smiling.

Campus continued bustling on Thursday despite the hot, muggy weather, as the heat index in Boston crept toward 100 as the day wore on. Students shuffled between classes, passing crews continuing to work on campus construction projects. In the Ruggles Plaza, a wellness and fitness day brought out members of the Northeastern community for outdoor yoga, Zumba, and cardio sessions.

It’s dark and it’s freezing in here. It feels wonderful.
— Paula Plum, visiting professor, speaking of teaching in the Studio Theatre

Still, there were signs the heat wave sweeping into the Boston area was affecting campus life. Not one person was sitting on the Curry Student Center roof deck shortly after 1 p.m. And the few people relaxing on Centennial Common were parked in the shade. Among them was Katelynn DiMatteo, a sixth-year student in the physical therapy program. DiMatteo decided to cozy up in a green Adirondack chair for an hour in between classes to catch up on some work for her elective course in orthopedics.

“I actually don’t mind the heat so much,” said DiMatteo, DPT’17, “and I’ll be inside with A/C the rest of the day.”

Ross Beroff shared DiMatteo’s upbeat attitude amid Thursday’s brutal heat. He led two campus tours to prospective students—one at 11:45 a.m., and the other at 2:45 p.m. “I’m definitely feeling the heat,” he acknowledged, “but I can handle it.” For proof, Beroff pointed to his four years of experience as a summer camp counselor at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, N.Y.

Beroff said he focused on finding shady spots along the tour to stop, telling jokes, and helping families make the most of their campus experiences. “When I was looking at Northeastern, my tour made me feel right at home,” he said. “I’m trying to make people on my tours feel the same way.”

Across campus, Paula Plum was just as happy to be indoors. In fact, she would argue she had found the coolest spot on campus—the Studio Theatre, where the thermostat read 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Plum, visiting part-time lecturer in the Department of Theatre, had 20 more minutes before students arrived for her introduction to acting course.

“It’s dark and it’s freezing in here,” she said. “It feels wonderful.”