All University of Nebraska housing is set to be equipped with sprinklers under a plan passed Thursday by the NU Board of Regents.
MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2007 7:00 pm
All University of Nebraska housing is set to be equipped with sprinklers under a plan passed Thursday by the NU Board of Regents.
It just won’t be done until today’s third-graders are ready for college.
The plan, approved unanimously, calls for some 750,000 square feet of NU residence halls and Greek houses to be fitted with sprinklers by 2017. It’s the latest sign of the state’s stepped-up fire safety efforts after a fatal fire at Nebraska Wesleyan University last year.
“There’s just no doubt that students and their parents put a lot of trust in us. … We have to make every effort to show the public that it’s a concern of ours and we’re going to do everything we can,” said Regent Bob Whitehouse of Papillion.
The project would put NU on par with Wesleyan, which raced to equip all its university-owned residence halls and Greek houses with sprinklers after a Nov. 17, 2006, fire at Phi Kappa Tau fraternity killed one student and critically injured three others.
Immediately after the fire, officials speculated 19-year-old Ryan Stewart of Ord might have survived had the house had sprinklers.
Nine months and $300,000 later, Wesleyan announced it had installed sprinklers in nearly all its university-owned housing.
NU’s project, which covers much more housing space, will be far costlier — $16 million for residence halls plus millions more for Greek houses. Still, Regents Chairman Charles Wilson of Lincoln had difficulty swallowing the project’s 10-year timeline, questioning whether that was the most “reasonable and practical” option.
“I want it to be the shortest interval possible to protect lives,” he said. “We want to do this as early as possible.”
NU simply doesn’t have enough money to complete such a significant undertaking quickly, other officials said.
“This is not an inexpensive thing to do,” said Rebecca Koller, NU’s facilities director.
Added Regent Jim McClurg of Lincoln: “Obviously, we can fund this tomorrow. It just depends on what part of the university we want to bring to its knees.”
Most of the work to be done is at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where 515,000 square feet of housing needs to be equipped with sprinklers. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, about 230,000 square feet will be sprinkled. All housing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has sprinklers.
In all, NU has about 2.8 million square feet of housing space.
Among UNL’s Greek houses, four of 19 fraternities and eight of 13 sororities already have sprinklers, Greek Affairs Director Linda Schwartzkopf said.
The rest have been charged with raising their own sprinkler funds. Many houses already have drafted fundraising plans and are expected to make significant progress in the next few years, Schwartzkopf said.
“All of our chapters are taking fire safety seriously,” she said.
They have incentive to meet their deadlines: Beginning in 2017, any Greek house without sprinklers won’t be sanctioned by the university, meaning first-year students wouldn’t be allowed to live in the house.
Other elements of the regents’ fire safety plan:
* Each NU campus must designate a “fire safety officer” responsible for maintaining safety standards in student housing.
* NU must keep annual inspection reports on file for all housing, with special notes of any fire alarm or sprinkler system deficiencies found.
* Deficiencies must be corrected immediately.
* All equipment upgrades, inspection results and corrective action must be reported to the regents annually.
Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.