The Princeton Review gave the University a mediocre fire safety rating. While it certainly could have been worse, it needs to be better. Fires are particularly dangerous for college living, because students in dorms are packed in pretty tightly.
Chancellor Mark Wrighton admits to the danger. “If there’s a fire tomorrow in a facility that doesn’t have a good sprinkler system, that’s a potential tragedy,” he said.
Wrighton got the main problem with our fire safety exactly right: the lack of sprinkler systems in some buildings. According to the survey the University sent the Princeton Review, however, only 41 to 60 percent of residence hall rooms are protected by an automatic fire sprinkler system. Yet sprinklers are highly effective in safeguarding life; a fire in a fully sprinklered building has never killed more than two inhabitants, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
The University is reluctant to install sprinklers in old buildings because of the expense involved in renovating some old buildings. It would be nice for the University to release its cost/benefit analysis, then, because the value of human life is so high that only the most extreme expenses should trump safety concerns.
The old facilities “are on our list of renewal opportunities,” assured Wrighton. Before a tragedy occurs, they should be put at the top of that list. Recarpeting Center Court, remodeling Bear’s Den and equipping the Arc with widescreen plasma TVs are all frivolous expenses compared to safety expenditures.
Fire safety training, of which the University provides between 36 and 60 minutes’ worth to students annually, could also be beneficial. But administrators say that students wouldn’t pay attention. Partly this is students’ fault, but administrators could be looking for ways to ensure the message gets across. Boulder, Co. Fire Chief Larry Donner told the Center for Campus Fire Safety, “We have discovered ways to make the fire safety education for college students interesting and interactive.” This includes staging mock fires for students to practice basic fire safety skills. The University hasn’t done this kind of training since 2000, unfortunately.
True, the fire safety ranking is not as prestigious as the U.S. News rankings. But the increased value of a University degree that comes from a high U.S. News ranking does nothing for a dead student.