Campus Fire Safety, under heat from students and the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) regarding stringent new regulations, has responded. Beginning next year, students charged with safety violations will be able to appeal their fines through a board and may also lower or eliminate their fines by attending one-hour fire safety seminars.

Campus Fire Safety has also abandoned plans to set fire to a mock dorm room, which would have been funded by this year’s student fines as an illustration of the danger of fire violations.

Despite considerable changes, Fire Safety officials are unsure whether or not the new appeals process would actually be more advantageous to students than the unofficial appeals system that is currently in place.

“What we’re told by the WSA is that students feel powerless in this process,” said Associate Director of Campus Fire Safety Barbara Spalding. “We really ramped up our inspections process this year. A lot of students felt violated, and they responded by requesting a change, and so we’ve modified our policies.”

The Housing Fines Appeals Board, effective next year, will consist of three students appointed by the WSA, one Physical Plant official, and one Fire Safety official.

WSA member Mike Pernick ’10, who spearheaded the efforts to reform housing inspection policies, explained why he decided to pursue the issue.

“They were more aggressive this year than they have been in history,” Pernick said. “There was no consistency, no warning system, and no official appeals process. Very few of the policies were written down anywhere—it was a very vague, nebulous situation.”

Spalding said that students were able to appeal fines by contacting her, explaining the situation, and demonstrating that they understood the reason for the fine. Many students also retrieved prohibited items that Fire Safety had confiscated during inspections. According to Spalding, unofficial appeals have reduced the total fines by $12,000 from $47,000.

“If I took something of yours, you will be able to come back and get it at the end of the year,” she said. “As long as you take responsibility for your actions, we may be lenient.”

Spalding said that the new appeals system will leave no room for apologies—if a student violates the code, the student will be fined.

“Under the new policy, the appeals committee has to stand by the rules and regulations of the University,” she said. “Right now, [Associate Director of Facilities Management] Jeff Miller and I just sort of use our own discretion in deciding appeals cases. With the committee, it’s going to have to be more black and white, in accordance with school regulations. So in actuality, it won’t be as good for the individual.”

Pernick said that he is not as enthusiastic about the unofficial appeals process as Spalding seems to be.

“[Spalding’s] version of an appeals process is that students give her a call and if she feels like it she’ll get rid of the fine,” he said. “That’s not an official process and there’s no student input on the process.”

Regardless, disagreements over the appeals process seem to be made moot by the proposed seminar system, an easier way for students to avoid fines.

“Once or twice a semester, there will be seminars that will teach students how to be fire safe and all those good things,” Pernick said. “If you show up, you can get your fines lowered or eliminated.”

Spalding said that the seminar is the most effective compromise forged in Fire Safety-WSA negotiations.

“It’s a fire safety seminar in lieu of payment—one hour for $100,” Spalding said. “I would much rather have people attending an educational seminar than getting fined. Our primary goal is to keep people safe.”

The policy on confiscated property will also change next year. Currently, the official policy states that confiscated items will not be returned. While Spalding said that she already does return items to students, the new policy will make it a requirement.

“Starting next year, all items that are confiscated by Fire Safety, with the exception of candles and incense, will be returned at the end of the year,” Pernick said.

But not all the WSA’s demands were fulfilled. One request was a system that would force Fire Safety to warn students on first offense and then fine students on second offense. Fire Safety refused.

“Warnings didn’t work the first time,” Spalding said. “Re-inspecting rooms two or three times each was very time consuming and ineffective.”

Fire Safety will use the remaining $37,000 from the most recent violations for safety education.

“We can’t tell them how to spend money, but we can make recommendations,” Pernick said. “I honestly don’t know what Fire Safety is planning on doing with the thousands of dollars that they have collected.”