<p>I was reading about UVA residence halls earlier, and I checked out the fire safety policy and found myself very confused.</p>
<p>Did it say that flammable objects such as posters are not allowed unless under plexiglass? I am very confused... do people not follow this rule or does everyone plexiglass-it-up?</p>
<p>Sorry, I am just confused about some of the living policies in the dorms, I may have other questions too.</p>
<p>they have to be in frames or else the fire marshall, if they happen to inspect your room, will give you a warning of the violation. The fire marshall will then come back at a later date to see if you corrected your problem and if you haven't, they'll fine you.</p>
<p>Most will follow the rule or wait till they make inspections before putting up posters. We use an extension cord in our room for one outlet but we took it apart during the time inspections were being made.</p>
<p>I guess it's to be safe, but it is lame too... blank walls are so boring, and too much work to frame everything.</p>
<p>i think if you lamenate the posters you can put them up. also, i had a cool RA who told us when the fire marshall was coming--so we just took everything down for like 2 days, and then put it all back up.</p>
<p>PLEASE don't use old school extension cords! Also, don't smoosh your cords too much behind your furniture.</p>
<p>Back when I was a grad student and assistant hall director, there was a fire started by the pinched wires of a surge suppressor. The students had basically crammed it behind a bureau.</p>
<p>The entire building had smoke and water damage (sprinklers were triggered all over and those fire hoses pump out a lot of water). This happened in the wee hours of the morning, when most students were asleep. Many had post-traumatic stress as a result.</p>
<p>Use your head...is a poster a huge hazard? Probably not. Is covering your entire wall with paper a hazard? Probably.</p>
<p>RAs would tell you when the fire marshalls will inspect your room. In Brown, it's not a big deal. Like one of the posters here said, you just take down the items that will incur code violation, but put them back up after inspection is done :)</p>
<p>yea this year they told us three different fire marshall dates... so eventually i just gave up, covered my room in posters, and took them down the weekend before the fire marshall came. (hid them in the closet - they can't look there) my ra has all of these flammable flags (hrm...) in his room so he doesn't care. it's entirely the fire marshall you're up against. i dont know how much advance warning you get in regular 1st yr dorms but dont stress. on the other hand, if you get cited it's $50 and the next time they will have a hearing to decide if they should let you continue to live on grounds!!</p>