University - Halls of Residence

RAS

Tom

When I was a student one late night fire alarm results in the university learning that the occupancy rate in one college exceeded 200% by the look of things, although that was after a good gig.They did a drill a couple of weeks later which confirmed this. However, everyone got out within the required timeframe.

We had a whole host of alarms due to toast mainly, and a plumber with gas soldering kit. The one real fire was due to an overloaded power socket setting fire to a curtain, and did not set off the alarm!

I really do think this is being done by security to harass students rather than for safety sake. Not least because everyone gets so fed up that they respond slowly and get to ignore it.

What do other students think about this place?

I assume you have some sort of statement? Could you approach the University Welfare/Student Welfare people and explain that this is damaging your well-being? Maybe you could move halls?

pimento

sooz wrote: »

I think the OP said the kitchen was 2m x2m

In my son's halls, the kitchen is about 2m x 2m for the whole floor (8 rooms) but is described as "suitable for making snacks only" and the room is part catered.

It is very small for eight rooms.

mustrum_ridcully

pimento wrote: »

In my son's halls, the kitchen is about 2m x 2m for the whole floor (8 rooms) but is described as "suitable for making snacks only" and the room is part catered.

It is very small for eight rooms.

OP doesn't mention if the halls are catered/part-catered.

The (self-catered) 1970's hall I lived in (many moons ago) had a reasonable sized kitchen. Whereas the (part)catered hall where some of my mates lived had a smaller kitchen for more people.

Security was pretty tight and people had to be signed in after 11pm. Then again the halls were built close to a council estate, mind you security didn't stop the chavs (or whatever we called them back then) from getting in.

There was one fire drill a year IIRC (in the halls and main uni).

I expect universities have gone overboard now due to helicopter parents who'll kick-up a fuss (or sue) if anything goes wrong and/or things aren't 100% perfect.

Jowo_2

Tom2010 wrote: »

...

Blue tack on the walls? Certainly not. Nothing whatsoever is allowed to be secured to the walls.

You'll find similar rules when you come to be a private tenant on an AST where it's fairly common to be required to ask the landlord's permission to fit picture hooks and nails. Blue tac is often forbidden.

For your information, blue tac causes greasy marks that are hard to paint over and can pull off the paint when removed. An occupant puts up a poster and then requires the landlord to paint the entire wall, plus put an undercoat where the greasy marks are. 2 mins to put up a poster, a couple of hours and a £150 bill from a decorator to put it right.

When you own your own place, you can mark the walls in any which way you wish, fill it with lovely scented candles blow the electrical circuits by overloading it with wrongly fused appliances and stay in bed when the smoke detector goes off.

orangeslimes

Tom2010 wrote: »

.

However...the following does really annoy me:

1) Constant 'fire drills' at 7am or 11pm, where everybody has to evacuate the whole building. My flatmate was 'fined' £18 from her deposit because she was in the shower, and 'took too long' to leave her room.

When I was in halls there were also constant fire drills - mostly caused by stupid things such as someone burning a piece of toast at breakfast. As far I know people didn't get fined.

During the fire drill, halls staff enter EVERY residents bedroom and bathroom to check that nobody is trying to hide away. During this time they also rummage through your room/personal belongings and note down anything you're not allowed to have. You get a letter from halls staff a few hours later with a fine and a notice to remove the 'offending item'. This also happens during 'genuine' fire alarm activations.

That is totally out of order! If they are checking everyone has left the building they should be doing only that - and if it is a genuine activation surely they should be concentrating on the fact there could be a real fire.

2) The rules say that you are not allowed a mini fridge, candles, kettles, wireless routers, door stops and a million other things. You're also not allowed to open your window fully, despite there being no 'safety mechanism' to prevent this.

My halls had much the same... and there are probably logical reasons for some of them.

Halls staff enter your room whenever they like to conduct 'health & safety checks' or 'smoke detector inspections'. There is a generic notice in the hallway that states 'Health & safety inspection will be carried out in bedrooms at random between the following dates - 1st September until 31st August - These may occur at any time of the day'.

Again that seems totally out of order. When I was in halls once, or twice a year inspections were carried out, with prior notice of the couple of days in which they would be done.

On my last room inspection, halls staff decided my room was too untidy and issued me with a fine. They also noted down the serial number of my TV and DVD Player which they say they will pass on to the TV licensing people to 'check whether I have a TV license' (which is rubbish, I know!). They also said they will be visiting again soon to inspect students computers to ensure they have not been watching live TV online, without a TV license!

Whether you have paid your TV license is surely a matter between you and the TV licensing enforcers, nothing to do with hall staff?
And inspecting your computer is an invasion of privacy.

I appreciate I have a license which affords me less rights than a tenancy agreement, but SURELY there is something me and my flatmates can do to regain a sense of independence over own rooms??

I don't know what you can do, but I definitely think they are acting in a way that is overboard. It is not fair for them to just enter the rooms as they please (and surely it is a not a good idea - what if you are naked, entertaining a friend, etc)
I would contact your Student Union for advice as a first step.

Jowo_2

Tom2010 wrote: »

... A guy in the flat downstairs set off the smoke alarm by burning some toast at 11pm...we had to wait in the SU bar or outside in the pouring rain for 6 hours, because security staff noticed an unrelated smoke detector 'cover' was missing. They refused to let us in until emergency contractors came out and replaced the single detector head. Bear in mind it was 1 detector out of about 35...it had been broken for weeks....it was raining....and they wouldn't let us back in until 5am because 'there might be a fire by the broken detector and we'd get sued if anyone died'.

I suspect they were just punishing the students for the high number of negligent fire evacuations they caused by deliberately setting off the fire alarms, letting off fire extinguishers for 'fun', burning food when drunk or leaving kitchen doors open when forbidden which meant the steam triggered the alarms.

At my Uni, the fire service were alleged to educate the students in taking their responsibilities seriously by making them stand in the snow and rain for hours as they meticulously reviewed the fire system in the halls, after one too many false call-outs. Funnily enough, the rate of malicious and negligent fire activations reduced once it was the students that were greatly inconvenienced.