No More Catch and Release for Banned Items

Fire safety inspections have once again come and gone. Perhaps you've noticed a missing extension cord or plug-in? What you might not know if you decided to ignore the e-mail is that this year students will not be getting back their cords or other items. According to Fire Safety Office Ben Sears, "The reason we gave them back last year is because it was the first year we were trying to get the student body aware of the items they could and could not have. The intention all along was to eventually confiscate items and not return them."

Even though this process started last year and incoming freshman have never gone through the process before Sears said, "It applies to freshman; we are working with RCL [Residential and Commuter Life] additionally to inform students before they come to school to let them know what they can and can't have. This applies to everyone both on and off campus housing."

Sears gave a list of measures being taken to make up for this lack of experience in freshmen and to remind upperclassmen that "everything that is prohibited by the university is published in the student handbook it is put out by RCL, it is on both RCL Web site and the environmental health and safety Web site. There have been posters made and circulated in all the residence halls, posted in the lobbies, in addition circulated through all the fraternities and sororities.RA[s] and REC[s] have been instructed to do some type of program to inform the students."

There is, in fact, a method to this madness. Sears explained the process of confiscating items: "When we do fire health and safety checks all the confiscated items are entered into a database by our office, and if we go back to the same apartment and find the same items it can then become a judicial offense. First-time offenses are not normally sent to judicial board unless there is some extreme circumstance which hasn't happened yet."

Despite all this, "I think is a common misconception among the students that we are out to get them," Sears said. "We are just there to make sure they don't have the prohibited items, we are also there to check on the building."

Students can check the student handbook or talk to an RA if an item owned is questionable. They will be able to answer any questions on fire safety items or find someone who can. "We do fire health and safety quarterly; we do one per semester, one over winter break, one over summer. They serve the purpose to, one, not only make sure students have what they are supposed to have and are using things appropriately, as well as keep them from having prohibited items which both Longwood and the commonwealth of Virginia and the state fire marshals office prohibit," said Sears.

Winter break isn't too far away, and the confiscation without return policy will be ongoing over the break. Thus far no one has made it to judicial board for repeated fire safety offenses and RCL is hoping to keep it that way.