Room Inspections Catch Leverett House Residents by Surprise

Leverett House residents who had been flagged for fire safety violations lost their microwaves, coffeemakers, candles and grills during rapid and unannounced room inspections Friday.

Though the House superintendents annually check rooms to confiscate appliances that violate the Cambridge fire code, Leverett students said that unlike in past years, they did not learn of a series of reinspections until their cooking equipment was removed from their rooms.

Kelly Shue ’06, who was taking a nap when Leverett Superintendent Paul Hegarty and a member of the House staff came into her room and woke her up, said she would have hidden her microwave if she had known in advance that her room would be searched.

“The main issue is that we were told the last inspection would be in late January,” Shue said. “In the past, people had been really stupid, leaving their microwaves out on the day of inspection. In this case, I think people got mad because no one had any warning.”

Hegarty said he put notes on students’ desks over winter break, informing them that they had violated the code and that he would conduct a second round of room inspections to ensure that the rooms complied with the safety standards. The second round was scheduled to take place in the last week of January.

“Everyone with a flag got a notice by e-mail alerting them to a second inspection,” Hegarty said. “If the illegal appliances are still there, we’re supposed to take them.”

But Hegarty said the inspections did not take place until Feb. 6 because he was sick on the day they were scheduled.

When he returned to work last week, Hegarty said he confiscated a total of eight microwaves, four coffeemakers, several candles and a George Foreman grill.

Hegarty said last year he confiscated six microwaves and several coffeemakers, but no grills, and the year before—when the fire policy was not stringently enforced—he did not confiscate any appliances.

“This is a system-wide inspection and it’s also not new in that we have had students alerted in the past that reinspections would be done,” said Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67.

Shue, who said she was surprised by the sudden and strict enforcement of the fire safety code, sent an e-mail over the Leverett open-list Friday warning students that the superintendent was making a round of inspections and confiscating appliances from individual rooms.

Though Toussaint G. Losier ’04 read the e-mail Shue had sent out, he said he was still too late to save the microwave he shares with his “U”—or U-shaped hallway serving to connect the individual rooms within a single suite in the Leverett Towers.

The microwave joined a collection of other cooking appliances, candles and coffeemakers on a trolley the superintendent was using to make his rounds.

Hegarty said that the majority of microwaves came from Leverett Towers, not from Old Leverett, and that he has stored them in a locked room underneath his office in the Leverett basement until a charity comes to collect them.

Losier, who lives on the ninth floor, said he felt frustrated that he had been targeted for the reinspections and vowed to take greater precautions toward protecting his possessions by locking his U in the future.

“It’s easy to get microwaves and that stuff out of the Towers because they can use the elevators,” he said.

But Losier said that the violation of his privacy bothered him more than the loss of his microwave.

“You sort of start to take for granted that you have a degree of privacy in the place you live,” he said. “This really brings home the fact that anyone, if they have the right access, can come into the rooms.”

Hegarty said that he was authorized to open closets, but not to search under beds or in drawers.

“I don’t feel comfortable taking personal items from the students’ rooms,” he said. “But I believe in the fire policy because I don’t want a fatality on my conscience.”

Losier said he did not blame Hegarty for following the fire safety violations because he was simply doing his job.

But Losier criticized the fire safety code in a reply to Shue’s e-mail to the House open-list.

“I’ve been wondering as to the wisdom of transferring potentially flammable coffeemakers, microwaves and halogen lamps to a deserving charity,” he wrote. “Aren’t we handing those in need a ticking time bomb?”

He facetiously suggested sharing other Leverett resources with charities, including access to the House’s cable TV.

Ross M. Audet ’06, who lives across from Shue on the first floor of one of the Leverett Towers, lost the microwave sitting on the table of his common room.

But Audet said he was even more surprised to see the rest of his cooking appliances remaining.

“Strange that they didn’t take our hot pot, which was sitting right out in the open next to the microwave,” he said.

Hegarty said he didn’t see that hot pot.

Lamont J. Barlow ’05 returned to his room in Leverett Towers just as Hegarty was making the inspection.

“He knocked on the door and asked if the room was clean,” Barlow said. “He spotted the microwave, picked it up and walked out.”

Before winter break, Barlow said that he and his roommates had wedged their microwave in a closet between boxes and disguised the bundle with a coat. Still, Hegarty managed to find the microwave.

“Hegarty must have searched the closet, because he left us a fire safety slip alerting us to the violation,” said Barlow. “It was kind of a shock. When I lived in Old Leverett last year, we just put the microwave on someone’s bed and threw a sheet over it. It looked like a silhouetted microwave, yet it wasn’t confiscated.”

Hegarty said six microwaves had been found in students’ rooms in Mather House during the past week. Superintendents from other Houses could not be reached over the weekend.

Dingman said there is little students can do to win back appliances that were confiscated according to the rules.

“If students feel that there has been some error, they can raise the issue with the building manager,” Dingman said.

Hegarty said one student had already approached him with an appeal to regain possession of her microwave.

“I wanted to give the student a chance to fight for her microwave before we cart it off sometime this week,” Hegarty said.

For now, residents of the Leverett Towers who do not own a Harvard-approved “micro-fridge” must use the microwaves in the Dining Hall.

“It’s not worth walking across the street to warm something up because it’ll be cold by the time I get back,” Barlow said. “It would be different if we had mini-kitchens in the Towers.”

—Staff writer Elena Sorokin can be reached at sorokin@fas.harvard.edu.