Last May, Campus Council leaders sent a unanimously approved recommendation to Residence Life and Housing Services urging them not to ban student-made lofts on campus.
But with the announcement of the policy against custom lofts, the leadership of Campus Council is sending out a new message: RLHS didn't get the memo.
Campus Council is currently drafting a new policy resolution asking administrators to reconsider the decision and find a way to compromise student safety and student freedom.
Campus Council Vice President Kevin Thompson, a senior, said he hopes to have the new resolution approved by the Campus Council policy committee Monday, by Duke Student Government next Wednesday and by the Campus Council general body at its meeting next Thursday.
Eddie Hull, dean of residence life and executive director of housing services, said RLHS's policy strayed from the policy supported by Campus Council in order to temper the fire concerns that could accompany a room full of flammable wood.
He added that the dedication to crafting a loft policy with fire-safe dorms could make it difficult to alter the core of the policy: the ban on student-built wooden lofts. Other aspects of the policy, however, may be up for discussion, Hull said.
"Fire safety is the biggest issue-while there's room for judgment, the University will seek to always protect the safety of its students," he said. "Are we willing to talk about things that are reasonable? Absolutely."
Campus Council President Molly Bierman, however, said non-flammable wood is not as indicative of a safe loft as the presence of a safety rail-an element that she said is not included for free by either of the loft companies RLHS recommended.
"To me, safety in structure is more important than fire safety," said Bierman, a senior. "I've never heard of a loft catching on fire; I have, however, heard of people drunkenly falling out of their lofts and breaking their arms. That actually happens."
Indeed, there have been only two reported dorm fires since Fall 2005, according to data collected by the Fire Safety Division of the Occupational and Environment Safety Office.
"If you ask them, their response is, 'Oh, [the new policy] did incorporate some of the suggestions,'" Bierman said. "But it's so minimal that I can't, like, take it seriously."
Announced on RLHS' Web site this past June, the new lofting policy restricts East Campus residents from lofting with anything save for the two models the University has approved for student use. This policy will go into effect on West Campus at the start of Fall 2009.
Students in select dorms on East also have the option of asking RLHS to affix extenders to their existing furniture.
Of the 400 extenders ordered by the University, however, Gonzalez said fewer than 50 have been picked up. Gary Thompson, director of facilities and operations for RLHS, said the University spent $63,000 on the extenders-leaving approximately $58,000 worth of materials unclaimed.
Chris Jayne, founder and president of Collegiate Bed Lofts Company, one of the companies selling an approved loft to students, said he sold only "fifteen-something" lofts to students on East, but that he plans to have a discussion with University officials regarding how to improve next year's roll-out.
"We didn't lease that many [lofts] this year," Jayne said. "This was our first year and it was a trial year with them. We need to sit down and talk to them about some of the issues we ran into."
Campus Council has unanimously passed two statements-a resolution in February and the memorandum in May-since starting to work with RLHS to draft a blanket lofting policy during the 2006-2007 academic year. The memo took into account the criticisms RLHS levied against the original resolution; it did not, however, elicit any feedback from RLHS before the announcement of RLHS's final policy, Bierman said.
"So we send a memo in May," she said. "We never heard anything back from them, and in July, I'm on [the RLHS] home page and it says 'Lofts,' and it has this policy that totally undermines ours. They totally undermined all student input under the guise of 'safety.'"
Hull said he did receive the memo drafted by Campus Council, but did not have enough time to respond to it before releasing the new lofting policy.
"In truth, we failed to inform Campus Council because we had to inform first-year students before they worked out housing issues," he said. "We've apologized for that and we're moving forward."
In an e-mail to Bierman June 27, Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residential life and Campus Council adviser, admitted that there was a "lack of communication" in the month preceding the announcement, and added that "[Campus Council] should have received a response to the revised memo submitted in late May as well as a preview on the new policy before it was distributed."
The new Campus Council resolution will include more research on how to make every dorm fire-safe, while still attempting to preserve the orientation tradition of slaving over a pile of wood until it becomes a loft, Thompson said.
"I can only hope for the best," he said. "I know the Campus Council general body will be advocating for the student body, and we hope RLHS will have an open ear to the policy we present to them."
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