Keene State College students received an email last Friday from Residential Life saying that all students must take down their tapestries because of a small fire that occurred recently in a dorm on campus.
While I do not have a tapestry and was not affected by the e-mail, many of my friends have tapestries in their rooms and were outraged that the college would make everyone take them down just because of one person’s carelessness.
Though the e-mail did not cite specifically what caused the fire, does it really matter? The policy should not be changed just because there was one small fire. We are almost at the end of the semester and only one tapestry-related fire has occurred. If this had happened multiple times throughout the semester then I would understand and agree with the college for taking this action.
Accidents are bound to happen. Since the fire was “accidental and [then] immediately contained,” I don’t see the problem here. The entire building did not burn to the ground and no one was hurt. Yes, fires are dangerous and can get out of hand quickly, but action was soon taken and no one was hurt.
I know the college wants us to be safe, but forcing students to take down their tapestries won’t prevent fires from happening in the future. However not just tapestries have been banned on campus. According to the e-mail, “all students are required to remove any and all tapestries, curtains, quilts, jerseys or other fabric wall hangings, including those serving as ‘doors’ to closets.” At the last floor meeting I attended someone brought up that the school might not allow shower curtains?
Water is going to get everywhere! Replacing all shower curtains with doors is also going to cost a pretty penny. I say leave the shower curtains.
Fires do not start because of tapestries. Fires start from carelessness or accidents. My friend Emma Mehegan summed it up perfectly. She said, “Banning tapestries is ludicrous because it’s just as ‘dangerous’ as the sheets and blankets on a bed.
“My bedsheets are just as likely to exacerbate any fire. Furthermore, tapestries add personality to rooms that would otherwise be bare, they add – for some – touches of home, they add opinion [and] they add ownership.
“To me the removal of these things is dangerous, because without them any ‘at home’ feeling in a place that is unfamiliar is not as easily attained.”
Mehegan continued, “Removal of the curtains that act as ‘doors’ to closets is equally ridiculous because the clothes in the closet are just as much of a threat as the curtains themselves. Will you ban my clothes? My blankets? My personality? If these things are dangerous then we will only be safe in bare and childproof cells.”
Lizzie Zelenka can be contacted at lzelenka@kscequinox.com
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