is given the duty of watching over a village’s flock of sheep. The boy is told that if wolves should threaten the villagers’ sheep that he should warn the village inhabitants by yelling wolf. Being young and incapable of handling responsibility, the boy cries wolf repeatedly to watch the village inhabitants come scurrying out of their homes. Eventually the villagers tire of the boys nonsense and ignore his cries of alarm, unfortunately, when wolves were truly threatening the flock.

University housing has experienced a similar problem. A rash of false fire alarms in University Park at the end of last semester is currently under investigation with six suspects facing class IV felony charges.

The Daily Egyptian urges all residents to take this matter seriously and reminds students that they are harming themselves and the safety of others with stupid, childish acts like these.

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On the other hand, the DE congratulates those residents who helped the University identify the individuals suspected as responsible for the false alarms.

The University seems to have a small percentage of residents, like the young boy, in University Housing who are incapable of handling the responsibilities of an adult living on their own. By pulling the alarm they condition others to believe that the alarm is not important, just another false alarm, and in any building – particularly the towers in University Park – this is a potentially deadly response to have to fire alarms.

To some this may seem a harmless prank, but the seriousness of the action is shown by the penalties. If convicted, a person faces a possible one-to-three-year prison sentence along with up to $10,000 in fines from the state. A SIUC student also faces review of status in student housing and as a student at SIUC.

It is hard to fathom the humor that

some find in setting off false alarms. It also seems morbid considering SIUC’s dark past concerning fires at night in student housing off campus. The Pyramid fire in 1992 killed 5 students, and the Garden Park Apartment fire in Feb. 1995 displaced 60 students.

Some other consequences of the false alarms include diverting fire personnel away from real alarms and the disturbance to students, particularly during finals week.

Should the false alarms continue, another consequence could be the University paying Carbondale more for fire department service. Jeff Doherty, Carbondale city manager, said this is unlikely as long as the city sees evidence of University programs to control the problem and disciplining of students found guilty of initiating false alarms.

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The DE commends all those who came forward and helped officials investigating these false alarms and urges all students to consider not only their own safety, but that of the rest of the student population.