Spring Hill College Residence life introduces random room checks for the 2017-2018 school year.
Every year students prepare for about two Health and Safety Inspections a year, in which they are required to have their Residence Advisor check over their room for any violations. This year, Residence Life is stepping up their game and changing that process with much dismay to students. Students should be expecting changes, and have already gotten a look at what Reslife’s new tactic is.
Holly Banning, the Assistant Director of Reslife, explained that this policy has not changed from previous years, saying “The Residence Life Office conducts health and safety inspections periodically during each semester. The College reserves the right to inspect rooms at any time for any reason deemed necessary." Students have many complaints about these unannounced checks, but Banning reminds us that everyone should at least know that they are conducted the third week of every month.
However, students are frustrated with this process, explaining that they do not like the lack of notice and reminders. Senior Cobe Kirkikis said, “I understand they have to do these checks, but last time they came I just got out of the shower and I had no clue they were even coming and I had my stuff out all over the place, stuff I would have put away knowing they were coming.” Junior Lauren Byrd responded to what she thought of the safety inspections, “I know that they do it in order to make sure everything is safe, but people like to have a heads up about these things. I was studying for a test when they came in and had no clue they were coming at all.”
Banning expounded on the reasoning for these more frequent checks, saying “Health and Safety checks also give us the opportunity to help students take care of any facility needs in their space. If work orders need to be placed or any items need to be fixed, the RA will be able to help with that.” She explained that if students fail a room check, they have 48 hours to rectify the violations, but if they fail for a policy violation, such as underage alcohol possession or fire hazards like candles, the violation will be documented through the conduct system. Banning encourages anyone with questions or concerns to contact Reslife at reslife@shc.edu.