EMILY HENDERSON
STAFF WRITER
Photo by HANNAH GIBBS
Many students have already experienced the Health and Safety inspections that began this semester. This inspection is returning to Alma this year, and is something that has occurred across all of campus.
While this may be the first year in a long time Alma College has introduced the Health and Safety inspection, this time it’s here to stay.
“The Health and Safety checks are going to happen once a semester,” said Resident Assistant Andrew Coffelt (‘20).
These checks will happen each semester, and are done to ensure that each dorm room hosts a safe environment for the students here at Alma.
Most students here on campus do not enjoy the room checks, but they also don’t feel as though they are an invasion of privacy either.
“I honestly didn’t think twice about it; I thought it was normal,” said Noor Hassan-Contreras (‘23).
While these checks occurred on North campus, they were also done on South campus and at the Greek houses. Some theme houses felt as though they weren’t adequately warned of these checks, though.
“They knock on the door and say “campus security” and then they come into the house. They knock on every door and tell everyone they’re coming in and if they don’t get a response they walk in. If you tell them to hold on a second they will, but not for very [long],” said Darian Jones (‘21).
Some students expressed concern over the way the Health and Safety checks were conducted at Greek houses, as some fraternities here on campus claim they were not informed 24 hours before the check occurred, yet students living in the dorms were.
“Health and safety inspections entail Residence Life staff members notifying students at least 24 hours in advance that health and safety inspections will [occur] during a set date and time,” said Graduate Assistant for Second Year Experience, Andrew Lienau.
It is mandatory that these inspections are announced 24 hours before their occurrence, so as to not surprise any students.
The new Health and Safety inspections will continue on after this semester, whether students like it or not. While these checks may be abnormal for Alma, they aren’t atypical for other colleges.
“This is the first year Alma has done health and safety, but a lot of other schools do them,” said Coffelt.
A quick Google search will clearly show that many colleges all across the United States do, in fact, conduct these inspections each semester to ensure the dorms are as safe as they can be for all of the students living on campus.
While many colleges and universities may conduct these inspections, that doesn’t mean students like them.
Some students feel as though these checks go beyond just looking at Health and Safety, and may even be close to an invasion of privacy.
“They should just be coming in to look and see that the fire detector hasn’t been tampered with and you should look around to make sure everything is fine, but no, they come in and look hard. I know for sure [that] someone was told that they failed the check because their trash can was full and they had dirty clothes on their floor,” said Jones.
While some students may feel as though these checks go deeper than just looking around to ensure everything is in tip-top shape for student’s health and safety, some say they’re just doing their job.
“We weren’t digging through people’s stuff, it’s just a look at the overall room,” said Coffelt.
While these Health and Safety inspections may be seen in a controversial light by some students, the fact of the matter remains: the new Health and Safety inspections are here to stay.
