After five years as the Associate Director of Fire Safety, Barbara Spalding has left the University. According to Associate Vice President for Facilities Joyce Topshe, the position was eliminated at the end of last semester.
Bill Nelligan, the Director of Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability, will oversee the diminished Fire Safety department, consisting at this point of Fire Safety Coordinator Chris Cruz. Nelligan could not be reached for comment. Topshe declined to comment on why the position was cut, citing the fact that personnel matters are confidential. No changes to Fire Safety policies have been announced.
Spalding came to Wesleyan in 2005 from Smith College, where she was also a fire safety official. When she arrived, Spalding quickly lobbied for a number of changes in fire safety policy on campus. In a 2007 interview with Ed Comeau on Campus Firewatch Radio, Spalding explained that her ideas were well received by President Doug Bennet and certain members of the Board of Trustees.
“I was very fortunate when I got here,” she told Comeau. “One of the members of our Board of Trustees was also on the Seton Hall Board of Trustees when they had their fire seven years ago and he saw firsthand the devastating effect…and realized that fire safety needs to be a very high priority for any college administration to pursue.”
After meeting with various administrators from Physical Plant and ResLife, among others, Spalding spearheaded several projects that would change the University’s approach to issues of fire safety. One initiative was to install sprinkler systems in nearly all student residential buildings. She also headed the WesHome program, which educated seniors about fire hazards and provided them with other safety tips for living in woodframe houses.
Spalding advocated annual inspections of every single student residence on campus, as well as increased fines for violations of the fire safety code. Director of ResLife Fran Koerting, who consulted with Spalding when the new measures were discussed, said that the inspections policy especially was a step forward for the University.
“This was a huge shift as far as more education and physically going around the residences to make sure it was safe,” Koerting said. “I think it’s a huge improvement—knowing that all our residences are inspected. It makes me feel that our residences are a lot safer than they were five years ago.”
During the last several years, the WSA has negotiated with administrators in an effort to change aspects of the fire safety policy. In response, an appeals board was established and inspections procedures were modified out of privacy concerns.