Dorm locks: What about sprinklers?

Writes Dartlog reader James Killmond:

I saw in today’s D that the College spent $500,000 to put in a pass-key door lock system. Perfect for monitoring student movements, if you like that sort of thing, but I would like to have seen the money spent an a much more important safety issue, sprinklers–which the College has not made

enough of a priority.

I believe there is solid story here. About two and half years ago, there was fire in a Seton Hall dormitory that did not have sprinklers. Three students were killed. At the time, the College said they had a five-year plan to fully outfit the dorms with sprinklers, which I think is ridiculous and unacceptable. Isn’t the Greek housing required to have sprinklers? Haven’t there been more fires? What about off-campus housing? Doesn’t the College have regulations on that too? It may be hard to install them when the dorms are occupied, but isn’t the College causing the problem by forcing people to live in sub-standard dorms in the summer, when it could be closing the dorms and installing the sprinklers? At $30,000 a building (one D article put the cost of outfitting the Gold Coast at $100,000), what

is taking so long?

Yours, James