It’s lights out for halogen lamps, candles and other potential fire hazards in the dorms.
Residential Life spent Nov. 1 to Nov. 7 conducting its semesterly inspection of on-campus housing.
“Basically, we were just looking for fire hazards,” Lahood said. These include not just halogen lamps and candles, but also microwaves that don’t meet Loyola guidelines, and toasters.
Halogen lamps are a problem, he said, because they burn very hot. But he said that while Res Life must have pulled at least 100 halogen lamps during the ’04-’05 school year, this year’s numbers have reduced drastically.
A lack of manpower forced the inspection to be run differently this year than in the past.
In previous years, Res Life inspected the dorms with personnel from Physical Plant. Also, every dorm was inspected.
But this year Mark Lahood, assistant director of residential facilities, performed the inspection on his own, and he wasn’t able to get to all the rooms because of time and personnel. Instead, he selected rooms randomly.
“I don’t want to be invasive with this,” Lahood said. “It’s a potentially awkward thing, but this year has been good.”
Biever resident Dylan Hoon, economics freshman, agrees. “I don’t think it was a really big deal,” he said. “They didn’t get anybody in trouble.”
Director of Residential Life Robert Reed – who has been at Loyola for 25 years – said that the university has been conducting these inspections for at least 30 years.
Res Life conducts the inspection as a preventative measure, Lahood said.
“This really is for the safety of the residents,” he said. “A fire is the last thing we want to have happen, especially because of a faulty halogen lamp or microwave.”
Excessive garbage in the dorms was the “health” part of the inspection.
In telling residents to take out the trash, Lahood said, Res Life has pests in mind.
“The insect population had the run of the city for a few months,” he said, referring to New Orleans right after the storm.
Michael Girardot, music industries senior, received a notice that he had too much garbage.
“Our trash was empty but they might have been talking about some other stuff around the room … and that’s the truth. We’re pretty messy,” said Girardot, a Carrollton Hall resident.
There are no fines associated with the inspection. Students are expected to take care of violations within the week, when their Resident Assistants will have a follow-up.
Catherine Cotton can be reached at [email protected].
