Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker has signed into law a measure that will provide financial assistance to colleges to install dormitory sprinkler systems, but will not require that the schools do so.
Previous versions of the measure -- proposed by State Rep. Michael McGeehan (D-Philadelphia) in the wake of fatal fires at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania -- would have made sprinkler installation mandatory in all dormitories.
The more demanding versions of the bill were scrapped largely because of the exceedingly high cost of sprinkler systems, which would be especially burdensome for small colleges.
The new law, signed by Schweiker last month, will provide low-interest loans to colleges and universities for a five-year period, effective immediately.
"We have the shameful distinction of having more deaths by fire on college campuses than any other state in the country," McGeehan said. "The need was absolutely that [we] do something to try to prevent that from happening again."
Penn currently has sprinkler systems in the Quadrangle and a few other college houses, and there are plans to install systems in the remainder of the residential buildings, including the high rises, within the next three or four years.
Vice President of Facilities Services Omar Blaik estimates that the cost of installing sprinklers in these remaining dormitories will be considerable -- between $15-$20 million -- and state loans would ease the financial burden.
"We are looking into it, and we think they are attractive loans that would help," Blaik said. "We think we will be applying for them, but I am not 100 percent certain."
But Blaik said the new legislation did not prompt the University to undertake installing sprinklers in all residences. Instead, Blaik said that decision had already been made.
Regarding schools without plans to install sprinklers in their dormitories, McGeehan maintained that even though the new measure does not mandate the installation of sprinklers, the low-interest loans will provide a significant incentive for administrators to act.
McGeehan also said that schools which do choose to put sprinklers in all their dormitories will be able to better market themselves to parents and prospective students as safety-conscious institutions.
"While we don't explicitly say in the bill that they have to do it, I think the market provides" a reason for them to do it, McGeehan said.
Still, McGeehan is disappointed that his proposed mandate did not go through, and he has pledged to keep pushing for a more comprehensive campus fire safety measure.
"Am I totally happy with what we passed? No," he said. "Do I think it's a beginning and a good start? Yes. Do we need to do more? Yup, and we intend to do it."
"We ran into... the political reality," McGeehan continued. "We understood from the previous governor that the support would not be there for the previous versions of the bill that mandated retrofitting [in on-campus housing] and on off-campus, privately-owned fraternity and sorority houses."
The first version of McGeehan's measures would have mandated sprinkler installation not only in dormitories, but also in fraternity and sorority houses. The Greek clause was absent from the bill's second incarnation.
Currently, the only state which mandates sprinkler installation in all residences and Greek houses is New Jersey.
The third version of the Pennsylvania bill, which ultimately passed the legislature and was signed by Schweiker, was actually proposed by the governor's office last February. Schweiker spokesman David La Torre said the governor opposed a sprinkler mandate on financial grounds.
"Let's be frank -- these things cost money, and they cost a lot of money," La Torre said. "We thought this struck an appropriate balance between helping get the sprinkler systems into campuses, but at the same time setting up a way that colleges and universities can better afford them."
A prior version of the bill would have transferred $125 million into a sprinkler loan fund. With the current measure in place, the state will make available $70 million per year for the next five years.
Campus Firewatch publisher Ed Comeau -- who testified before the Labor Relations Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives regarding the sprinkler bill -- said any laws dealing with campus fire safety represent progress, but legislation is not always the best answer.
"Legislation that would mandate sprinklers and fire alarms -- in the current economic environment, that's not going to be possible," Comeau said.
Comeau also cautioned that universities should not underestimate the power of parents who discover that their children are living in a building without sprinklers.
"If 800 parents called up the University and said, 'Why are our sons and daughters living in an unsprinklered building,' what do you think would happen?" Comeau said. "I bet you over the summer it would be sprinklered."
