Dos–yes, not putting in a bench seat would be a start. But pix show low sills with a dorm bed pushed up against the windows which creates the same problem. Not having a seat allows sitting on an open sill if there is no bed.
We can talk about being stupid but stuff happens. I could see this scenario in my own house–low window sills with built in bench in a bedroom… And I locked the windows to not open from bottom (you can pull them down from top) and put up a barrier… Not on my watch. The university should do the same in this case. Especially since it is not the first case of this happening. It is not a hard fix.