In early December, Dean Mike Whaley sent an e-mail to top Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) officials informing them that the annual goal of inspecting every dorm on campus had been accomplished months earlier than usual. When WSA President Mike Pernick ’10 asked whether the information could be made public, Whaley assented, noting that inspections may continue in “problematic areas.”

“I think it is okay to let folks know that we have been informed that fire safety has completed their inspections for the year,” Whaley wrote in the December 10 response to Pernick. “I suspect there may be some re-inspections where there were violations and they will continue to address problematic areas about which they become aware.”

Having engaged in negotiations over fire safety inspections since early 2007, the WSA was eager to claim victory as the next semester began. In a January 25 post on their website entitled “Search Stoppage: No Fire Safety Inspections This Spring!” Student Affairs Chair Becky Weiss ’10 gave credit to Wesleyan’s student government for a “halt” in the controversial inspections.

“Over the last few months, WSA representatives have been at the table with top administrators over the issue of intrusive Fire Safety searches, some of which resulted in student arrests last semester,” Weiss wrote. “As a result, Fire Safety will halt the process of room inspections this spring.”

In the post, Weiss also mentioned Whaley’s caveats about re-inspections and renewed inspections of “problematic areas.”

The next day, WSA member and blogger Justin LaSelva ’09 published a tongue-in-cheek post on Wesleying encouraging students to “put your tapestries back up, break out the candles and incense, and plug everything you own into ungrounded extension cords: Fire Safety has ended inspections for the academic year!”

On January 30, The Argus published a story quoting WSA sources that indicated that general room inspections had been “suspended,” though it did mention the likelihood of re-inspections.

The reports took some administrators, such as President Roth, by surprise.

“When I read in The Argus that we weren’t doing any more fire inspections, I called up Dean Mike and said, ‘What the hell is this about, you can’t announce that we’re not doing any more fire inspections,’” Roth said. “We certainly did not say we’re not going to have more fire inspections because the president of the WSA doesn’t want us to do them.”

While Fire Safety appears to have let administrators in North College know that they had achieved the goal of inspecting every room on campus, they say that they never announced any ending to this year’s random inspections.

“If we planned on not doing inspections anymore, why on earth would we announce that to the campus?” said Barbara Spalding, the Associate Director of Campus Fire Safety.

In January, Associate Vice President for Facilities Joyce Topshe, who oversees the Fire Safety department, said that while their goal had been reached, inspections and re-inspections were still on the table and that no policy had changed. The only written policy regarding Fire Safety inspections states that “university staff will conduct unannounced room inspections throughout the academic year.”

“Our goal each year is to conduct at least one fire safety inspection in every student residence,” Topshe said in an e-mail at the time. “Additional inspections are scheduled as time and staffing permit to ensure a safe campus. Re-inspections tend to focus on areas where hazardous conditions have been identified. There has been no change in policy or procedure in this regard.”

On February 23, a month after the WSA’s initial announcement that inspections had been stopped, Director of Residential Life Fran Koerting sent an e-mail that was forwarded to a large portion of the student body stating that there had been incorrect reporting about fire safety inspections and that “random checks will be conducted throughout this semester.”

Hours later, the WSA sent out an all-campus e-mail entitled “Fire Safety on the Hunt,” in which there were two theories proposed for the divergent accounts between students and administrators. Either “the administration was initially disingenuous or misinformed in notifying the WSA and the Argus about the completion of searches,” they said, or “Fire Safety decided to capitalize on reduced vigilance of unsuspecting students following the publication of negative coverage in the Argus regarding the search stoppage.”

Over spring break, Fire Safety conducted re-inspections of rooms that were previously in violation. It is currently unclear whether there will be renewed random inspections, though the option remains on the table.

“Students pretty much determine that,” Spalding said. “If we get reports about fire safety violations then we will perform inspections.”

Spalding said that reports of violations could come from public safety officers, fire marshals and other varied sources.

Both sides do agree on one thing: there seems to have been a miscommunication. Yet, when it comes down to it, there are even disagreements on that.

“The real issue was overall miscommunication on their part,” Pernick said. “I don’t believe that there was any malicious intent.”

Apparently, neither does Whaley. Pernick, however, could have read his e-mails more closely, the Dean implied.

“[Pernick] may have missed the second part of what I said in my e-mail,” Whaley said. “It was never the case that they were halted because of pressure from the WSA. It sounds like the WSA is taking credit for halting them, which wasn’t the case.”