Small question, will there be more times where students can go up to the floors to access items? Its not an emergency for me but there is a book or two, i'd like to pick up..if at all possible

Contact housing Kevin

Originally Posted by aj-maxx

Shit like this doesn't happen at great institutions....

I think saying things like this is probably exactly what the person responsible for this wants to hear. It completely takes the blame off of him/her for his or her actions. Forget that this was an irresponsible, unbelievably inhumane thing to do to your fellow students. Forget that it is one person's choice to put his or her peers in jeapordy. Forget that any University, deemed 'great' or otherwise chooses to treat its students as adults and that this person clearly chose to forego that privelege.

Yes, let's blame the institution.

Residences fires are relatively rare, but not that uncommon.

McMaster residences are some of the safest in the country. I can state this having visited residence buildings across Canada.

I lived in residence at another university back in 2004 and we had three fires in the building during the month of September alone.

During the first one, nobody went door to door to make sure people were out of the building. I actually slept through the first fire and only awoke after it was out.

Let's blame the institution. Oh Hell Yeah!
I still stand by my point.
How can you smoke in a smoke free building and get away with it?
Now the person responsible obviously got away with it before and that is why s/he did it again. Well if s/he didnt get away with it in the first place this would've never happened.

Great Institution..LOL!

Originally Posted by summer

I think saying things like this is probably exactly what the person responsible for this wants to hear. It completely takes the blame off of him/her for his or her actions. Forget that this was an irresponsible, unbelievably inhumane thing to do to your fellow students. Forget that it is one person's choice to put his or her peers in jeapordy. Forget that any University, deemed 'great' or otherwise chooses to treat its students as adults and that this person clearly chose to forego that privelege.

Yes, let's blame the institution.

Nobody's blaming the institution, but a university with a higher percentage of "academically oriented" students would be likely to have a lower percentage of idiots.

I volunteer to join the ranks of McMaster's newly formed idiot police. My weapon of choice: frying pan.

I'm really not sure where you're getting the smoking thing from, considering that was, at best, just a theory tossed out by someone - the Ontario Fire Marshal hasn't released the results of his investigation yet as to what the ignition source was, just that it was arson.

In other words, we're probably not talking about a carelessly tossed cigarette, here - it was a fire that was deliberately set by someone.

Even if someone was smoking in the building, I'm not sure what you expect of the building's staff. They can't be everywhere at all times (especially at that time of night), nor can you monitor every public space in the building by cameras (let alone private spaces). If someone goes out of their way to not get caught (covering smoke detector, blowing smoke out the window, etc.), chances are they won't.

So why don't you direct your anger at the idiot who caused all this? Again, morons can exist anywhere, one just happened to strike at Mac this time. You can't predict or prevent everything - frankly, sometimes all you can say is, shit happens. You just have to make the best of a bad situation, which is exactly what seems to be happening now, much to Mac's and the community's credit.

It was a tradegy and the only person you should be pointing your finger at is the person(s) who commited this tradegy. Saying mcmaster is a bad institution because some nut-job commits arson is foolish and very disrespectful.

My point wasn't to debate if Mcmaster is great or not so great institution..
I rejected a pile of universities (which I consider way better than mcmaster IMHO) because of the apparent 'safe' environment at Mcmaster.
And then this happens.

I'm sorry to anyone I offended but I'm just pissed off cause of all this drama.

This was honestly very depressing. I can't believe that we won't be able to go back to Brandon. I live up in the ninth floor so I'm guessing that's it for us for the rest of the year. It's really sad because you're just getting to know everyone and our floor was really really tight. Everyone was crying in disbelief after the meeting at MDCL today. What happened to our res is very tragic and quite frankly I am in shock right now. I can't believe all of this happened because of a complete idiot. Coming into Brandon Hall the first few days, I was excited but I was also worried about living away from home. I quickly adapted to life away from home because of the great people I met at this residence. I have spent perhaps the best times of my life with these people and it's only been about a month and a half. I'm going to miss all the random floor gatherings our floor had, chillaxing with the boys in the hall at 3 a.m., crashing people's rooms, going to random parties, having random parties in our room and finally the time spent with all of Brandon during Welcome Week. I really loved my floor and we were all just so tight and we also had the two coolest CAs ever (Thanks Tarrie and Stacey). Thank you ninth floor, you guys are amazing. It's just not going to be the same. So much for the first year residence experience. I just want to say how much I loved and enjoyed the time I spent at Brandon and I want to say thank you to all the great CAs and friends I made there. It's not over and I know I'll be seeing most of you guys around. Stay strong Brandon...I love you guys. Thanks for some of the best days of my life.

Originally Posted by aj-maxx

I'm sorry to anyone I offended but I'm just pissed off cause of all this drama.

You have every right to be pissed off, and I don't think anyone's disputing that. I'm just saying that an incident such as this, while tragic, is essentially a one-off event. I don't think it makes McMaster any less safe or any less great, since it's not like it's part of a pattern of incidents or anything of the like. If anything, I'd say that the response of the university to random, senseless acts such as this would be the best indicator of the greatness of the institution.

LOL cippi and aj

so nino - what's the final word about the people who live in brandon? do they get refunds? are they being moved? can you still live in brandon?