Students frustrated with false fire alarms, early morning construction in Methodist Hall

Students have expressed frustrations with fire alarms going off on multiple occasions in United Methodist Hall dormitory.

A fire alarm sounded at about 2:50 a.m. Nov. 9. A second alarm went off less than a week later at about 5:45 a.m. Nov. 15.

Jordan Kilgore, acting senior, posted on the OCU Facebook page about the lack of communication regarding the fire alarms.

“Now seems like as good a time as any to point out that we were given no explanation of the LAST fire alarm fiasco. No email, no apology, no nothing.

I think the people who live in Methodist Hall are owed some answers.

Why does this keep happening?” he wrote.

Kilgore said he heard from alumni on Facebook that the alarm falsely going off has been an issue in the past as well.

“This has been going on for a really long time, which is concerning because why hasn’t it been fixed before,” Kilgore said.

The alarms went off due to the temperature change outside and pressure changes in the spaces said Casey Kreger, director of housing and residence life.

“The first one was fog that was accumulating down in the lowest level, and, due to that, the detector thought it was smoke,” he said.

The second alarm went off due to high pressure in the ceiling. These pressure changes were caused by the temperature changes, he said.

Kreger said when the detectors were investigated, facilities workers found no issues with the system.

“For the both of those, the system was working,” he said. “It was doing what it was supposed to be doing.”

Kreger said facility workers check the alarms to make sure they only go off when necessary.

“We brought out our company to see if, with weather changing in Oklahoma, ‘is there a better way to do this so we don’t have these going off all the time,’” he said. “It’s an ongoing thing with them out here to try to figure out what the solution is for long-term more than just a short-term fix.”

Kilgore said students are becoming less willing to evacuate because they don’t think the alarm is real.

“People have started to just not leave because it’s like a ‘cry wolf’ thing. People are just like, ‘oh, it’s not real,’” he said. “So, if there’s a real fire, are people going to actually leave?”

Students should continue to follow protocol when the alarms go off, Kreger said.

“If it’s a fire drill or we know it’s an actual fire, police will come in and check every single room,” he said.

Josh Eliot and Dayton Drummonds, film production freshmen, said the fire alarms were annoying, but once they were informed about what was going on, they understood why the alarms went off.

“The consistent fire alarms don’t really bother me because they were all caused by different things because obviously the circumstances changed,” Eliot said.

Eliot said, despite the unfortunate timing of the past alarms, students should always treat them as if they were real.

“There have been times when the fire alarms went off, and my roommates and I wake up, and we immediately look at each other and say, ‘do we have to go?’ but I think it would potentially be very dangerous staying behind,” he said. “Assuming that the fire alarms are caused by something non-threatening every single time is not a safe choice.”

Drummonds said housing officials could have communicated the cause of the alarms better to the students.

“We hadn’t heard much from them until after the 5 a.m. one,” he said. “They probably could have told us more that they were false alarms, because then I didn’t know it was a false alarm or what was causing it at all.”

After the second fire alarm on Nov. 15, housing officials sent out an email to Methodist residents at 9:18 a.m. the same day to inform them of the cause of the alarms.

Before the email was sent out, Sierra Paul, theater and performance/education junior, said the students didn’t know any information about it.

“I know several people who didn’t leave their room,” Paul said.

Construction in Methodist Hall

Paul said she was especially frustrated by the events from last Friday, first the alarm at 5 a.m., then construction at 7 a.m.

Paul posted in the OCU Facebook page expressing her frustration with the loud construction so early in the morning. She then emailed Kreger and asked to meet with him to discuss the issues. She said Kreger explained the reasons the fire alarms went off and the purpose of the construction. She asked him to communicate with the students.

“I would appreciate if students got some sort of document that says where our money is going because we pay so much for these dorms,” she said. “If they are going to make us pay these enormous amounts of money, we deserve to be notified.”

The construction in the courtyard is to fix flooding issues on the first floor of the dorm, Kreger said.

“There are some drainage issues out in the courtyard due to some piping in the building,” he said. “Over the years, it led to drains backing up and sometimes the apartments on the first floor would flood.”

The next step in construction will be replacing gutters on the building, which should be completed by or before January, Kreger said.

Kilgore said he lived in one of the first-floor rooms last year that flooded. He said, after the flooding, facilities told him it was fixed, but it happened again in the spring. He was assigned to the room again this year, but emailed housing to request a different room.

“Now that room is boarded up,” he said. “That was really frustrating last year because it kept happening, and they offered no solutions, and my room kept flooding.”

Only half of the courtyard is being worked on because flooding only occurred on one side of the building, Kreger said. The construction on the other side will not be completed until next year due to funding, he said.

On Nov. 16, Methodist residents received an email from residence life officials informing them that concrete pouring in the courtyard would begin at 8 a.m. Corinne Prudente, acting junior, posted on the OCU Facebook group and said the construction started at around 6:45 a.m. that day.

Kreger said he reads all the posts on the OCU Facebook page concerning housing and responds when he can help. He said he will work to improve communication between housing and the students.

“A lot of our information about construction comes from facilities and their contractors,” he said. “A lot of the times, it’s communicating with them that ‘no, you can’t start until this time.’ We try to do as much as we can to alleviate those annoyances early in the morning,” he said.

Students commented on Prudente’s Facebook post expressing frustration with the university policy that requires students to live on campus until they are 21.

“I can see where it can be an issue that people feel like they should have the option. We’re all adults here. I think it’s fair to say that maybe that policy should be evaluated,” Kilgore said.

Kreger said, if students want to change the policy requiring students under the age of 21 to live on campus, they should talk to Student Government Association about it.

“If students make their voice heard loud enough and go through the proper channels, anything can change,” he said.

Paul said she would encourage students to reach out to Kreger because he explained the situation well to her.

“Hopefully there will be more communication,” she said. “I know people hate getting a lot of emails, but I appreciate to know what’s going on, so I don’t mind them.”

Kreger said, if students ever have any questions or concerns regarding housing, they can reach out to him or any of the housing staff to set up a meeting.

“Since students have expressed a need to know this, we can definitely meet that expectation,” he said. “I’ve been working with the resident director here in Methodist to inform them on what’s going on.”