Beep!!! "Not again."

Beep!!!

A disoriented, overstressed senior frustratingly wraps his pillow around his head.

Beep!!!

The pillow fails to block out the sound. He adds headphones to frown out the noise, not once considering the possibility of an actual fire.

Beep!!!

A select few sleepwalk outside of the Mods into the bitter cold, blinded by the blinking flash at 10 at night. The snow does not make the situation any more pleasant.

Beep!!!

Incidents like this one experienced by Brian Lau '06 are not infrequent at Brandeis. Since the beginning of this academic year, there have been what some people have called an outlandishly large number of fire alarms.

According to Ed Callahan, director of Public Safety, 20 fire alarms went off in September, 16 in October, 15 in November and 22 in December. The number does not seem to be decreasing, he said, and none of these situations have included an actual fire.

The increase in fire alarms is more than just an inconvinience for students. Every time a fire alarm is set off, the Brandeis Police and the Waltham Fire Department are contacted "If we get a call, we go straight to the scene," said Deputy Cliff Richardson of the Waltham Fire Department. While Waltham police and firefighters continue to take each fire alarm seriously, the gravity of the situation has become lost to students over time.

As the alarms continue to torment every nap, study session and shower, the level of seriousness with which students say they approach each instance is ever decreasing. "The first time the fire alarm went off in Gordon, I was a little worried, but when it did not stop going off it just got annoying," said Jordan Smedresman '09, commenting on the oft-tested North Gordon fire alarm of first semester.

Callahan said the increase in fire alarms does not indicate that the campus is at any more risk of a fire than in the past.

"Most of the situations are attributed to burnt food or popcorn. Sometimes people leave food on the stove and walk away, but it doesn't look like there have been any real fires in the residence halls," Callahan said.

While Brandeis buildings seem unaffected by fire, the increase in fire alarms has many students saying that their sanity is being slowly razed to the ground. So, students have decided to not let the beeping and flashing get to them.

"If I see flames coming at me, I'll leave, but until then I am eating," said Erin Keating '09 in reference to a fire alarm that went off in the Sherman dining hall last semester. Judging by the number of people who do not leave the dininng hall during an alarm, it's clear that much of the Brandeis population shares this sentiment.

The annoyance can become extreme. "When I hear a fire alarm, it makes me want to kill someone," Keating said.

The alarms may anger the community, but by now, it seems that the fire drill is a staple in the Brandesian culture.

"The Sherman fire alarm goes off too often to count," said Maureen Meyer of Dining Services. She said that the disruption of a meal "goes against the laws of nature," and that the faces of those forced to part with their meals were painful to look at.

Instead of serving as a safety precaution, students say that fire alarms are just an inconvinience, whether they interrupt a meal, a shower or a good dream.

And some things are just too good to be interrupted by a likely-false fire warning.

One junior who would like to remain anonymous put perspective on the increase of fire alarms. "My friend told me he was getting it on with his girlfriend," he said. "When a fire alarm went off and they just did it to the beat of the alarm.