By Erica Sands

Every summer and winter break, Safety & Security checks that the smoke alarms in all the rooms are functional and effective. What Safety & Security did not realize, until recently, is just how many students cover up their alarms after this routine check so that they can smoke in their rooms.

Security officers became aware of this issue at the beginning of the year when they were investigating a fire alarm in a campus residence. While there, they found that students had disabled a smoke alarm with a plastic bag—“very dangerous behavior” and also against college policy, said Dean of Student Life Steve Watter in an email to the student body on September 24.

The incident has passed, but the College is still trying to figure out how to prevent students from covering up their smoke alarms, an event that "happens all the time," says Will Harrison ’10, Students’ Council Co-President.

One idea that is to hire students to check smoke alarms, a thought brought up at a Safety & Security Committee meeting, said Tom King, Director of Safety & Security. If the plan were carried out, students would check the detectors at least once a semester, for a minimum of four documented checks a year. According to King, the committee “agreed that it’s a good idea.”

Students’ Council, however, is concerned that this policy would be an invasion of students’ privacy.

“Haverford students have a good deal of autonomy and personal privacy,” said Harrison Haas ’10, Students’ Council Co-President. “I hate to think that someone’s gonna be woken up at 4:00 in the afternoon when they’re just getting to sleep by someone wanting to check their alarm.

“Yes, some of us do only sleep at 4 in the afternoon. You laugh. You’re not me.”

Students’ Council, meanwhile, suggests disseminating better information about the alarms.

“I think right now people don’t understand what will and will not set off the fire alarm and what exactly the policy is… If we make that more clear, hopefully fewer people will tamper with fire alarms,” said Haas.

Many students do not realize that smoking won’t necessarily set off their alarms.

“You need a fair amount of smoke to trip a smoke detector,” said Mark Sweeney, Safety Coordinator. “If you’re smoking right under it, yeah, you’re gonna trip it. But if you’re across the other side of the room and smoking a cigarette normally, I would bet you it wouldn’t trip the smoke detector.”

Unaware of this, one sophomore said anonymously that he covers up his smoke alarm “because it’s more convenient to smoke in the room.”

“Lots of people do it [disable smoke detectors], as far as I know,” agreed Zach Feinberg ’12. “Anyone who’s gonna smoke in their room is gonna cover the detector… That’s a pretty decent amount of the people that smoke.”

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