OU has another high score to brag about this fall—the school’s perfect fire safety score.
The Princeton Review recently gave the univeristy a perfect score of 99 for the school’s readiness and ability to react to fires on campus.
David Soto, director of content management at the Princeton Review, said 2,500 schools were surveyed this year, and OU is one of only 12 to receive the top score.
The rating measures schools based on answers to a set of questions designed in cooperation with the Center for Campus Fire Safety. The scale ranges from 60-99, with a low score of 60 given to schools that do not respond.
Questions involve the number of dorm rooms with sprinklers and smoke detectors, whether the campus allows smoking indoors, the number of prank fire alarms and other related safety concerns.
OU’s rating this year is an improvement on an already high score of 94 last year.
OU Fire Marshal Kevin Leach said major improvements to the sprinkler systems around campus have been made in recent years.
“As far as fire detection and suppression we’re in good shape,” Leach said. “We’ve made significant improvements with the addition of addressable fire alarms systems and fully automatic sprinkler systems in the dorms. The upgrades have taken a substantial effort of time and money but it was considered a high priority.”
Mike Halligan, Center for Campus Fire Safety president, said the center provided The Princeton Review with questions several years ago, but the rating doesn’t involve any safety inspection.
“The schools have to self report so there’s no checks and balances so to speak,” Halligan said. “They only send a survey.”
Halligan said there are still many safety problems that need to be addressed on campuses across the country.
“Depending on the location, smoking can still be an issue as well as cooking fires and electrical fires,” he said. “The most common is probably arson. Smoking is also a concern primarily still in the south, but most campuses have banned smoking from the residence halls, so it’s not as big an issue on campus as it used to be.”
Fire safety tips for OU students can be found on the OUPD Web site, http://www.ou.edu/oupd/fslist.htm.
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soonerfan07 3 years, 6 months ago
Obviously the number of false alarms doesn't play into this rating...