The front page of Wednesday's Collegian contained an article about an incident involving a lit candle and a resident assistant. The intent of this letter is to clarify Residence Life's stance on violations of fire safety policies and the role of the RA.

Several recent fires in residence halls and fraternity and sorority houses throughout the country have brought much attention to the issue of fire safety both locally and nationally. At Penn State, fire safety has been and continues to be a priority for the Housing and Residence Life staff. We spend a great deal of time every year training our staff and educating students about fire safety issues.

Violations of fire safety policies are taken very seriously because of their potential life threatening impact on residents and their guests within the community. It is because of this that the standard intervention for a lit candle in a residence hall room is contract review.

All student safety violations are important to address. This is especially true when an RA is involved. One of the roles of the RA is to enforce university and residence hall policies. To do this effectively and with any degree of credibility, an RA must abide by the policies he or she is enforcing. Being a good role model is a fundamental concept in the RA program. It is for this reason that we state very clearly throughout the RA selection and training processes that students must be in good conduct standing to participate in the RA program. Good conduct standing does not include being on probation or contract review.

RAs who are dismissed from the program may request to be reappointed at a future date. Factors that are considered include, but are not limited to, a review of the circumstances involved in the dismissal, past performance, recommendation of the former supervisor, and the ending of a Community Standards or Judicial Affairs sanction. In all but very unusual situations, RAs who leave their positions during the year are given an opportunity to remain in on-campus housing if they so desire.

Finally, we were saddened to find that the article suggested that race might have been a factor in this situation. I can assure you that our response to fire safety violations and RA involvement in such circumstances has been consistently applied. Residence Life is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all students and staff living on campus. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the environment in our halls with any individual interested in doing so.