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RHA Senate calls on Housing to maintain dorms By JACOB DAVIS THE GAMECOCK The RHA Senate called on USC Housing Tuesday night to improve conditions at several residence halls that one senator said are having problems with roaches, air conditioning and flooding. One resolution, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Walsh of McBryde Quad, called on USC Housing to fix “egregious” ■ security concerns and to address ” problems like flooding and insect infestation at dorms across campus. McBryde, the Roost, Sims, Bates and Maxcy College were all named in the bill I ~ that indicated the campus-wide problems. Issues of flooding, “severe roach infestation” and problems with dorm air conditioning units were among the specifics listed. The resolution also stated the humidity level in the Sims dorm was “causing residents to get sick.” “I think that when a body like this one passes legislation like this, it is effective because we are speaking with one voice, rather than as individuals voicing individual complaints,” said Walsh, a fourth-year sports management student. The resolution pointed out that many of the same concerns had been reported to 7-FIXX, the USC maintenance help line, as early as move-in day and had still not been addressed. “When I inquired about why these problems had not been addressed, they responded ‘We’re understaffed,”’ Walsh said. Another major piece of legislation was put forth by Sen. Allen Klump of Bates House. Walsh and Bates West president Rick Wetherall were added as sponsors for the resolution that called upon Sodexho to present RHA with the steps they are taking to improve campus dining services. Citing the C ratings of the Carolina yiner at Bates House and The Grand Market Place in the Russell House, the resolution also called upon USC to “create a committee to review findings and help improve the quality and service of dining facilities on campus.” “We want to send the message that we know you are trying to make things better, but we want to know what you are doing. Students at this university want to be a part of it,” said Klump, a first-year political science student. The Senate also acknowledged that plans for a similar committee were already being investigated by i Student Government President i Zachery Scott. The Senate also discussed plans for j upcoming events during the Halloween : season, including the possibility of i socials and dorm trick-or-treating. The | Senate also heard a request from a • representative of the USC First j Responders Program; the organization : sought to gain affiliate status, which j would require a senator to bring legislation regarding the matter to the • floor m the future. Comments on this stoiy? E-mail gamecocbiews@gW7n.sc. eda _ft_ “We want to send the message that we know you are trying to make things better, but we want to know what you are doing Students at this university want to be a part of it.” ALLEN KLUMP SENATOR FOR BATES HOUSE WEST -1 Fire marshal urges students to heed alarms ■ FIRE Continued from page 1 computer engineering student, said he thought the occasional alarms were important to campus safety, but students tended to disregard them as a threat to life and limb. “I see people respond to them, but I guess they don’t really take them seriously too often,” he ^ said. Although drills aren’t required by the Columbia fire code, Griffin said USC tries to schedule two drills every semester, intended to make students aware of the exit procedure and accustom them to the sound of the alarm. “People have a tendency to want to come out the main lobby,” he said. That lack of a sense of urgency is evident in students’ occasional reluctance to exit the building. Trevor Reynolds, a first-year mechanical engineering student, said he’d missed the only drill at his dorm, but after years of fire drills, people tended to relax their attitudes. “1 would not be surprised at all if people didn’t leave (the dorms),” he said. Griffin said the rules allow the residence hall director to substitute unplanned evacuations for scheduled drills. “We have some of these residence halls that k have a lot of false alarms for whatever reasons. They can count a false alarm as a drill,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is overburden a residence hall with a drill if they’ve been having a lot of false alarms.” Sarah Burchstead, a third-year history student, said she’d always evacuated when there was an ■ “We have some of these residence halls that have a lot of false alarms for whatever reasons. They can count a false alarm as a drill.” TODD GRIFFIN COLUMBIA FIRE MARSHAL ASSIGNED TO USC alarm, but that few students hurried. “We know it’s just burnt popcorn,” she said without laughing. The drills are educational for most students, Griffin said, and USC does its best to schedule them conveniently so students aren’t rousted from their beds at 2 a.m. during exam week. “We try to do drills fairly early in the semester and toward the end of the semester. We try to work around exams. What we do is we pick dates of when we could do the drill and we send them to housing,” he said. Alex Jester, a first-year science student, said students always take the alarms seriously unless they’ve been tipped off to a drill, and there was no need to worry about students getting out safely in a real emergency. “If you know something’s going on, you might not worry,” he said. A minor fire broke out at Patterson Hall last year, and an ofF-campus Clemson apartment complex burned to the ground in the spring. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocknews@gtvm.se. edu FILE PHOTO/THE GAMECOCK Students pile out of Patterson residence hall in the middle of the night after a fire alarm is accidentally set off. Marshals say false fire alarms should be treated as drills. '' " 1 " I ^0% M X^'verizpn wire less 10 DAYS to get ©. Buy a I CAMERA PHONE no charges may apply. and get a COLOR PHONE FREE IGVX3200 With new 2-yr agreement. f—® VERIZON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS STORES o» *** COLUMBIA 7007-A Two Notch Rd. ORANGEBURG m.ei.icco 173 Columbiana Or. 865-6300 2718 North Rd. 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