OUR VIEW: A small price for added safety
Our safety, as students, is at a premium these days.
Shootings on college campuses.
Cars spontaneously combusting in parking terraces.
One would start to think these are dangerous times for college students.
With these things on our mind, we would be amiss to not at least reprimand – as much as our printed words have the power to – those responsible for the lack of fire extinguishers in the parking terrace, where a car fire sent smoke billowing out into the streets and across campus last Thursday.
It simply is unacceptable to not have, readily accessible, an apparatus so critical to fast, inexpensive response to a potentially dangerous situation.
When heads-up students go looking for fire extinguishers to put out a car fire, or any fire in a university building, they should find one – probably more than one, on each level.
The reasons we’re given are things like vandalism, which officials say prohibits the installation of fire extinguishers throughout the parking terrace structure.
Worries about vandalism shouldn’t be enough to keep USU from providing proper safety measures for its students. We’re sure several safety-related things have been the victim of vandalism – fire alarms, the 911 call stations around campus – but that didn’t mean we got rid of those things that have the potential to save lives and create a safe campus environment.
The inconvenience of vandalism is another incredibly poor reason for not providing the proper safety measures.
Is it possible they’ll have to replace a few fire extinguishers? Sure. But is it worth it to have the capability to stop a situation before it gets too far out of hand? Absolutely.
We doubt it’s a fiscal thing. Fire extinguishers probably aren’t cheap – anywhere from $50-$300, if our quick Google search can be trusted as a representative sample. But how much do you think it cost to mobilize half of Cache County’s fire resources?
In the end, is the cost really that important? No. You can’t put a price on the safety of students, and – to a lesser extent – their property.
We’re not trying to be fear mongers and strong arm something ridiculous out of the university. We just don’t think it’s too much to expect proper fire safety equipment to be available. USU may be one of the nation’s safest campuses, it may be the safest city in the nation, but there is nothing safe about the absence of fire extinguishers in the parking terrace.
So next time a student reaches for a fire extinguisher in a place they have a reasonable expectation of finding one – like in any university building – we hope they aren’t grasping at thin air.