THE February 12, 1985
Vol. 83 No. 35
VISTA
Tuesday Edition
Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma
Fire prevention hindered by false alarms By Curtis Killman Associate Editor "God gave Noah the rainbow sign No more water, the fire next time" The town of Edmond has a record that they can be proud of, according to Edmond Fire Marshal Ron Williamson. He said
there has never been a fire related death since Edmond has been keeping records. But, the problem of false alarms on the campus has Williamson worried. There were 31 false alarms on campus last year, Williamson said. "It's become the 'boy who cried wolf'
Damaged or missing fire extinguishers (above) are replaced in East Hall. An empty fire extinguisher cabinent (below) doubles as trash can for East Hall residents.
syndrome," according to Williamson. "Now when the alarm is going off, we drive up there and people won't evacuate. They hide in their closets. "When a fire alarm goes off, a grown college student hides in his closet so he won't have to evacuate the building. He doesn't know if there is really a fire. If we ever have a real fire someone could get hurt or killed." The dormatories have seen an upgrading of the fire prevention facilities, he added. "Those dorms are 200 percent better off than they were, just by virtue of the protection system and the people being aware," Williamson said. "The resident assistant programs over there are great, they really help us a lot. We've done a lot already and right now they're pretty much up to par with the codes." "We're still in the process in some of the older dorms, Murdaugh and Thatcher," Williamson said, "of doing away with the transoms. SmGice goes up and if there's a fire somewhere it gets in the hallway it gets into every room through those transoms. We're in the processs of working in that area. "When we do a fire inspection of those dormatories we usually end up with four or five pages of ideas and suggestions that would help protect the lives of the people who live there. When we turn that over to the university people, there may be $300,000 of things here that they could think about doing, then they prioritize and we help them prioritize." So far the alarm system and additional exits have been installed he said. Williamson said the false alarm problem needs to be stopped. He said they were prosecuting anyone caught initiating a false alarm. "It's a violation of state law, Title 21, to initiate a false fire alarm." There's still a problem even though it's getting better. When the system was installed, Williamson said, everybody had to "play with it." "We've prosecuted some people, we've kicked some people out of school, we've put them on probation, in fact last week we put a couple of girls on probation for pulling an alarm." "We've put covers over the pull boxes. If
you pick up the cover, that sounds a horn by itself. That way people in the adjoining rooms, who are mad as hell about having to evacuate every night, can open the door and look and say 'whose playing with it'. If they see somebody, then we can find out who did it." Initiating a false alarm is a misdemeanor in Oklahoma according to Williamson. The penalty is a fine and imprisonment in the county jail. But the problems continued. "When we did that (installed the covers on the alarms) people started burning paper and putting it up to the smoke detectors. We can't cover the detectors because that's defeating the purpose. "At that age they should have more maturity than to play with a safety device." Williamson said the alarm problem has declined some "It's slowed down considerably." Now the fire department is getting tough with those who don't evacuate Williamson said. "Anybody found in the building during a fire alarm, we're going to take their ID card and just turn them in to the Dean." Williamson noted some of the improvements to the dormatories: fire alarms installed, all the duct work system has been reworked, additional exits have been added, exit lights in the hallways have been changed and such programs as training the resident assistants in fire safety have been installed. "Right now we're working on ways to prevent the false alarms. We can have all the protection in the world and all the early notice and early warning devices, but if those guys, during the fire alarms, don't get out of the building, I can't help them. If they stay in there while a fire alarm is ringing under a real fire circumstance, I can't save them." Even though Thatcher Hall is a older dorm, Williamson said he preferred it to East Hall. "If I were moving into a dorm, it would be Thatcher," he said. "Buildings don't start fires, there are three causes of fire: men, women and children. I'd rather live in Thatcher, simply because you know everybody and know what's going on in that dorm. In East Hall no one know's what's going on." See FALSE ALARMS page 3
Plays win former student cash prize By Tim Ray Former Central State University student Diane Glancy has been awarded a $1,000 prize for two plays she entered in the biennial Five Civilized Tribes playwriting competition and has been named 1984-85 Laureate.
The Tulsa poet/playwrite entered three plays in the competition, two of which tied for first place, "Weejob" and "William Tincup's Squaw." "Weejob" is about a Mescalero Apache married to a Cherokee squaw who was reared in the
In this issue. . Financal aid available...page 4 Debate team places at Kansas tourney...page 4 "Protocol" review...page 6 Relay squad breaks records...page 7 Lion hand Bronchos loss...page 8
Female Seminary. "William Tincup's Squaw" concerns the Trail of Tears, which was traveled by Glancy's great-greatgrandparents. In an effort to encourage tribal creativity, benefactors Tom and Allece Garrard of McAlester have endowed the competition until the year 2000.
Entrants in the competition must be members by blood of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek or Seminole tribes. Glancy is a member of the Cherokee tribe. In addition to her awards from the Five Civilized Tribes, Glancy's
poem "Reservation School for Girls," which she used in a paper for Dr. CH' Warren's Literary Criticism course at CSU and which was originally published by the Institute of American Indian Arts Press in Santa Fe, N.M., has been reprinted in Sphinx, Women's International Literary Review in Paris, France.
Count Gregore to crown Queen By LaDonna Osborne This Valentine's Day, some hearts might beat a little stronger thanks to the "Queen of Hearts" dance sponsored by the Association of Women Students. The dance will be held on Feb. 14 from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. on the third floor of the University Center. The queen will be determined by the largest amount of money raised by different organizations. All proceeds will be given to the American Heart
Association. Coronation will be 9:30 p.m. Candidates for the Queen of Hearts are: Sonja Barnes-Delta Zeta, Cindi Creek-Alpha Gamma Delta, Lori Doughty-Sigma Kappa, Shelly HerringWest Hall, Patti Kirkham-Murdaugh Hall, Virginia Nichols-East Hall and Sheryl Taylor-Thatcher Hall. Count Gregore from channel 43 will crown the Queen. The DJ will be Bob Camp.