Staff Editorial
A St. Bonaventure upperclassmen sits in his or her dorm room, contemplating whether to put off studying until tomorrow or sometime further in the future.
There’s a knock at the door.
“Fire safety inspection.”
The student stands up confidently and opens the door, if the guests have not yet entered.
Generally the group is made up of one or more residential life employees and a member of the security staff. They take a cursory glance at the room and leave.
The student is now free to commit all the fire safety violations he or she wants. They might as well plug in a George Foreman grill with an extension cord to make a dinner to eat by candlelight, there’s no way, they’re getting caught. And they know it.
It takes only one year of experience or one conversation with an upperclassmen to realize that fire safety inspections only occur once a year and aren’t all that comprehensive anyway.
Obviously, if there are infractions that can be easily seen from outside (hanging of flags in front of windows or all over wall etc.), an RA will likely ask the resident to remove the object in question.
But as long as a student is wise enough to be discreet, he or she will get away with all the fire safety violations one could dream of.
Additionally, those students who inhabit townhouses are just now (in the recent and coming days) getting the privilege of residential life and security’s company.
What’s the point of this? Other than to feign interest in student safety.
Why wait a month to do inspections in some places? Wasn’t there fire dangers for the past month or so? What if one of the townhouses had caught fire last week because of a faulty extension cord and it came out the school hadn’t done an inspection yet?
Additionally, doing one all-to brief inspection per year for each room in the same short time period entirely defeats the purpose.
Students know to hide the extension cord at first and then do whatever they please after the inspection.
The policy should be to do random inspections throughout the year, with the threat to inspect a room more than once.
It should go without saying that the visits should be more thorough – if the inspectors aren’t actually going to look for dangers, they should stay home.
Do multiple inspections randomly or don’t do them at all. That’s the only way to ensure students will adhere to fire safety rules.
At the very least, it will inspire them to make sure their bongs and empty beer cans are out of view.
This editorial represents the opinion of The Bona Venture staff
