By Sasha Ndisabiye
Staff Writer
Returning to campus for the Spring 24’ semester, students were surprised to find that all the windows in Langston’s housing facilities had been nailed shut during this year’s winter break.
According to both students and faculty who reside in residential housing on campus, maintenance workers made their way through each apartment unit during winter break to drill screws in all the windows, making them unopenable. The decision was headed and approved by administration within the Office of Student Life and was not disclosed to residents before the project began.
Although working closely with administrative officials, members of the Student Government Association (SGA) were also not aware of the decision until after the process began. SGA Vice President Hannah Wall recalls finding out through one of her senate members who was staying on campus during winter break. Wall said, “I actually had a senator who stayed on campus over the break, and I got a call and she was like, ‘Hey, did you know they were nailing the windows down?’ After being made aware of the situation, Wall told the rest of the SGA Senate Board through their group chat and began discussing their opinions and concerns.
Wall later reached out to Dean of Students Joshua Busby and Vice President of Operation Theresa Powell to get more information on the situation. She was told that this was a project that began last year, starting in the Scholars Inn residential facilities and that they were “just finishing up what they had started.”
The main concern for students on campus focuses on safety and fire issues. Many believe that with the windows being fixed shut, leaving only the front door as an emergency exit, it could cause future safety hazards. Sharodon Jenkins, a senior Broadcast Journalism major and Langston Commons resident voiced her concerns especially having experienced a fire in her apartment her first year of college. Jenkins said, “My freshman year, I had a fire in my dorm. I was cooking something, and I didn’t notice that my stovetop was sparking, and I literally had to pull out the fire extinguisher.” After having put out the fire Jenkins said the very first thing her and her roommate did was open the front door and the windows to air out the smoke and the powder from the fire extinguisher.
During Jenkins Spring move in, when she realized the windows could not be opened, her and her peers began doing their own research into fire codes and regulations. Jenkins said, “My coworker was in there and we were looking up the fire laws and the safety hazards and it was brought it up that that is illegal [making residential windows unopenable]. And then I also heard that our fire department is actually a volunteer agency, like it’s not a real fire department, so that was news to me.”
The Langston Fire Department is a volunteer-based agency, but there are individuals who actively work within the department and are always on call. The department does have an official Fire Chief, Bobby Anderson, who mentioned that many within the Langston University community had reached out to him about their concerns with the windows being nailed shut. Not being aware of the situation, he also investigated it and found out that the decision was backed and approved by the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal and that it was outside of his jurisdiction.
Wall confirmed that the decision was approved by the OK State Fire Marshal after discussing the situation with Busby and Powell. After gathering the overall opinion of the Senate board Wall said, “The very first thing they were mostly concerned about was safety hazards, so the fire safety thing was the main thing anybody talked about… So again, we reached out and then that’s when we found out the fire marshal had actually condoned it.” She mentioned that they were provided with a list of why it was not a fire hazard but does not remember specifically the reasons mentioned.
According to the 2018 International Code requirements for Windows & Doors, under the Emergency Escape and Rescue Openings section, it requires that all sleeping rooms have accessible emergency escape and rescue opening (EERO’s). The code states, “It is important to note that the required opening size of 24 inches high, 20 inches wide and 5.0 or 5.7 square feet in area…”
Oklahoma’s laws also say that all openable windows are not allowed to become permanently fixed windows, and that it “shall be unlawful” to alter a building in way that decreases the amount of emergency exists or makes it so that windows do not meet the required opening size of 24 inches (Oklahoma International Building Code 2015 [IBC 2015]).
Administration and the OK State Fire Marshal did inform SGA that the window initiative has been picked up by most universities in Oklahoma within the last couple of years. Wall said, “Based off of all of the universities in Oklahoma at least, they all have already done this project and its been that way for a while. Mainly for safety reasons like people having suicidal thoughts and jumping out of windows.”
Having reached out to people who attended The University of Central Oklahoma, they also confirmed that the project was fully functioning at their university. LeeAnn Littlejohn, a former student at UCO remembered windows being both fully secured shut or only slightly openable while she resided in the university dorms. Littlejohn said, “I don’t believe I was able to in Murdaugh [UCO residential hall] but I think West Hall I was able to slightly. But like just enough to let fresh air in.”
Some of the faculty who stay in campus housing are also confused about the decision and wish that, as faculty/professors, they could have opted out of having their windows nailed in their apartments. Kimani Bunch, a communications professor and the general manager at Langston University’s KALU radio, understands the reasoning behind the decision but believes the university could’ve gone about it differently.
Bunch said, “I definitely think student safety concerns are valid, but I do believe, for lack of a better quote, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” He continued, “I do believe they could’ve put student safety first without completely eliminating opening windows.
Like the dorms at UCO, Bunch thinks it would have had the same effect by securing the windows so they can at least be open a few inches. He went on to say, “The most logical one is student safety, fine, but again a student can’t jump out of a six-inch window. And again, our argument is okay I can’t go out of this window, but if I walk six more feet over, there’s a [breezeway].”
Students and faculty in the Langston Community who wish to voice their concerns or support for this project may attend the Langston University Town Hall hosted periodically in the I.W. Young Auditorium or reach out to the Office of Student life at lustudentlife@langston.edu.
Sasha Ndisabiye is a senior broadcast journalism major.
