Freshman Evan Schreiber had a long day.

The entrepreneurship and television, radio and film major had worked hard preparing for both an exam and a paper due at 8:30 a.m. the next day. The last thing he needed was to be disturbed. But at about 4 a.m., the shrill sounds of a fire alarm woke him up and forced him and his roommates out onto the patio of Brewster and Boland residence halls at Syracuse University.

‘It made it really hard to get up the next morning,’ Schreiber said.

Brewster and Boland residents have recently experienced an unusually large number of student-pulled fire alarms, courtesy of a handful of mischievous students, said Lt.Grant Williams of the Department of Public Safety.

‘The days of John Belushi’s ‘Animal House’ are over; it’s a serious thing to tamper with fire equipment,’ Williams said.

Public Safety officers suspect that the same person or persons are responsible for the false alarms because the cases typically happen late at night and are all set off in Brewster. Residents of both halls evacuate their buildings during a fire alarm.

While both Capt. Drew Buske and Williams said the case is still active, the department has made some progress.

On Thursday, Public Safety officials turned in Ian Bartels, a freshman in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, in connection with intentionally pulled fire alarms, according to a police report.

Bartels admitted to pulling a fire alarm on Sept. 27 at about 2 a.m. and also to releasing the contents of a fire extinguisher on the seventh floor of Brewster, the report added.

‘[Unfoundedly pulling a fire alarm] is violation of New York state penal code and the university’s Student Code of Conduct,’ said Buske, who added that the crime is classified as a misdemeanor.

‘It can result in everything from jeopardizing a student’s housing status with the university to probation and suspension,’ Buske said.

While other judiciary measures against Bartels are undisclosed at this time, he has been removed from his room in Brewster.

The information Public Safety acquired which led them to Bartels came not only from staff but from residents as well.

Williams hopes to organize a large meeting with all the residents that he hopes will lead to more information involving the alarms.

‘I’ve slipped a lot of my business cards under students’ doors,’ Williams said.

Public Safety also questioned a resident about her involvement in the fire alarms. She later admitted to damaging SU property.

So far, Public Safety has recorded nine cases where someone has intentionally set off a fire alarm since the start of the semester, which includes one night when the alarm was pulled three times.

‘After the second one, we left to go to a friend’s house because we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t all over,’ said Megan Hart, a sophomore interior design major. ‘And we were right – we missed the third one.’

The residence staff has responded to the situation by holding floor meetings and sending out letters asking for information.

‘Right after the third one [of the night] happened, we had a floor meeting after we all got back inside,’ said Jonathan Toomey, a junior economics and television, radio and film major, and the resident adviser for the seventh floor of Boland.

Since then, Office of Residence Life staff members have made it clear to their residents what the consequences are and why false alarms are so serious.

‘We’re handling the situation more on an RA-by-RA basis,’ said Juan Zhou, a junior management and IST major who is an RA on the sixth floor of Boland. The false alarms even have people outside the SU community concerned.

‘Parents have been calling us. They know what happened at Seton Hall,’ Williams said, referring to a fatal fire at Seton Hall University. The fire killed three students who allegedly did not pay attention to the alarm in their residence hall, coincidently named Boland, at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2000.

One of Public Safety officials’ biggest fears is that students will stop taking the alarms seriously.

‘Now, people take out lawn chairs and comforters … and other people will play football,’ said Sheridan Wachtel, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences who has counted more than 20 fire drills overall. ‘We’ve gotten used to it by now.’

Despite students’ making the most of the situation, Wachtel hopes the false alarms will soon stop.

‘It’s getting old,’ she said.

Published on November 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm