I am writing in response to a letter from Fred Monsimer printed on Thursday, Feb. 2, 1989. In his letter, Mr. Monsimer complained about the new fire alarm system installed in North Halls, stating that the fire alarms on Monday, Jan. 30th were false alarms due to faults in this system.

Actually, the alarms that occurred were part of a monthly fire drill conducted by Student Fire Safety which were complicated by an alarm pulled elsewhere in the building.

He also claimed that there had been no false alarms in North in the four years before the installation of this new system. The fact is that there have been at least eight in this period before the new system, which IS more modern, by 31 years, and more reliable.

A system's reliability should not be judged by the amount of false alarms which occur while it operates, but rather by how well it communicates possible fires to residents and emergency personnel. Installing it throughout the University is not an overnight task, an( it has had its problems, however these are minor compared to the benefits of having a much safer system.

The new system is much more access sible, responsive and audible; it is still however, equally susceptible to pranks. False alarms are a factor which we at Student Fire Safety are unable to control.

Residents must realize that ANY alarm could be a real alarm, and decide for themselves whether or not they will risk their lives by assuming that whoever pulled the alarm is joking. Getting out in an alarm situation is often an inconvenience, but I personally would rather take every alarm seriously than let some prankster affect me enough to risk my life.

Mr. Monsimer lastly urged Penn State to protect residents by removing "the unreliability in the system" if the University is serious about protecting its students' safety. "Penn State" includes everyone at the University, and totally protecting our safety can only be accomplished when EVERYONE adopts a serious attitude towards fire safety.

This means evacuating when alarms sound and also not pulling a potentially life-threatening prank. Only then will Penn State have a truly "reliable" fire safety system.

I find it ironic that someone so concerned about the safety of residents would make claims that are mostly unfounded and thus jeopardize the safety of other residents by attempting to erode their faith in this new system.