Colonial Quad Residents are Living in a Constant State of Alarm

By Rox Aclin | November 10, 2025

Graffiti on a pamphlet in the author’s dorm tallying the number of fire alarms in Hamilton Hall on Colonial Quad. 

 Photo Credit: Rox Aclin | The ASP

Dozens of fire alarms, late-night evacuations and the wailing sound of fire trucks in the middle of the night — this has been life on Colonial Quad at the University at Albany since the start of the fall semester.  

“It’s hell,” said one Colonial resident Sariah, who did not state her last name for privacy  concerns.  

From August to October, Colonial Quad has had almost 90 fire alarms, more than three times the number of every quad on campus combined, according to an analysis of daily campus safety data. The tally is 18 times more than before the start of the COVID-19 quarantine.  

“[The alarm] went off seven times one day,” said Savitri, who, like her friend Sariah, lives in  Livingston Tower. “I cried.”  

An analysis of UPD public incident reports comparing the quantity of alarms from Aug.10 to Oct. 10 over the last eight years found that Colonial Quad made up 56% of all alarms on both the UAlbany uptown and downtown campuses in 2025. It also showed that more than 65% of those alarms were concentrated in two buildings – Livingston and Hamilton.

Colonial Quad is an odd standout among UAlbany’s other four residential quads. The quantity of alarms on the quad has increased from 4 in 2020 to 89 in 2025. In comparison, Dutch and State had only nine alarms in two months. 

Similarly, Livingston Tower had 32 alarms in two months, while every other tower with  comparable resident populations had zero. 

Hamilton Hall, one of the smallest low rises in the Quad, has had 27 alarms in two months, a third of all alarms in Colonial.

“I scream when this thing goes off,” said Chloe Vasquez, a sophomore, describing what it’s like  to be woken up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night.  

In reply to an email interview request in late October, the Colonial Quad Office said that six out of the nine buildings on Colonial Quad were to undergo alarm checks between Oct. 24 and Oct. 29. The alarm checks concluded that the alarms are in working order in all Colonial buildings. 

“The systems are sensitive by nature and designed to detect smoke, heat or steam— which have  resulted in alarm activations due to activities such as cooking, cleaning or smoking,” the email said. The school also thanked students for their patience while they conducted this review.  

The newly renovated dorms, Paine, Zenger, and Herkimer, were not included in the schedule as  they had only had a combined total of four alarms in two months.

While there have been hundreds of cases over the years of students known to smoke in dorms,  burn microwave popcorn or accidentally spray cologne into the smoke detectors, several students said they find it hard to believe only students are to blame for this number of alarms. 

Sleep-deprived, Cold and Terrified 

The alarms, often triggered late at night or in the early hours of the morning, are taking their toll  on students. Students, particularly those in Livingston and Hamilton, described experiences where they had multiple alarms go off while they slept, only to then drag themselves to class exhausted the next morning or consequently sleep through their alarms.

One Hamilton resident who asked to remain anonymous said, “When I go to class after being  woken up at two to three am, it’s like I can’t [expletive] focus. Because I was [expletive] woken up in the middle of the night!”

And once students make their way out of the building, they have to wait outside until the building is cleared for re-entry. It’s not uncommon to enter Colonial Quad in the dead of night and see a sea of shivering students complaining and standing around in blankets, bonnets and bathrobes. 

The reentry process usually takes at least twenty minutes at minimum. As the season progresses  and the weather gets colder, students are dreading upcoming late-night alarms.  

Rihan Sarker, a Livingston resident, voiced concern about problems that arise while trying to quickly evacuate. 

“You’re rushing [to evacuate] so you might not have your glasses, you might not have your proper shoes, you might not have a sweatshirt or something like that to prevent the cold,” Sarker said. “So, you’re in the freezing cold, and you’re tired.” 

Another Livingston resident said they and other students in the tower evacuate less often when  false alarms ring repeatedly on the same night. During the night students have to stand outside in the cold because the residential buildings lock after a certain point. Some Livingston students found it was preferable to stay inside instead of waiting in the cold. The students did not want to be named because failure to evacuate can result in a fine.  

According to the National Fire Protection Association, almost 1 in 10 fire fatalities are a result of residents failing to respond to fire alarms in their place of residence. Choosing to remain indoors can endanger the lives of those who live there and if found by Residential Life Staff can result in a write-up. 

In addition to all this, one of the largest negative effects noted by the interviewed students was the anxiety of living in a constantly screaming concrete box. Multiple students interviewed in both Livingston tower and Hamilton Hall recalled experiencing phantom alarms, feeling excessive worry about needing to evacuate even when off campus, or difficulty falling or staying asleep.

“I’ve gotten to the point where it’s kinda hard to go to sleep… I see the lights on [the smoke  detector] blinking too much and I’m like ‘oh god is it going to start?’ … So, I feel like as it gets darker, we’re waiting for the shoe to drop,” Colonial sophomore Saylor Skidds.

Included below are quotes from interviewed students who described their personal experiences living in alarm-concentrated buildings.

      "I feel like I've been terrified, traumatized from living in this building. Because the fire alarms, first of all, are so loud. Like they’re so loud. And they wake you up in your sleep and it's the worst thing ever."  

    “The lights, they flicker very bright at night. So, the light lights up the whole room for a good second and it's terrifying. It’s just so scary. When I’m at home and a light flickers I get a panic in my body because I’m like, wait, the fire alarm is about to go off!” 

    “I feel like the worst part is the two seconds you have when you hear it from the upper floors [first]. You hear it, and you get two seconds. You get two seconds to cover your ears before these [expletive] alarms start blaring.”

    “It’s worse when it goes off twelve to six a.m., because then you’re [expletive] woken up and you can’t go back to sleep.”

   “But now that we’ve gone through forty-five alarms – it gets tiring … I’ve had enough.”

  “It’s really traumatizing because eventually you start hearing the alarm and it’s like ‘I don’t want to do this.’”

 “I hear a crackle and think it’s the alarm, it’s not, but like – I’m scared.” 

Extra Work for Albany Fire Department and UA 

The Albany Fire Department said it has been working with the university to provide more  educational materials to dorm residents in hopes it decreases the number of alarms in an email. 

The university also mentioned over email it has been working to help educate students on fire-safe behavior, and that an update to the fire alarm systems would soon be implemented in buildings that have had multiple alarms this semester. 

The update would have smoke detectors perform additional checks for rising smoke or steam  levels before setting off building-wide alarms and would reduce non-emergency activations while still keeping residents safe. 

Some students, however, are not so reassured. 

“My RA told us that the fire alarms get set off because of the heat[ing] in the room, not because of what we’re doing. It’s not that we’re spraying things or smoking, it’s that the room gets too hot and the alarm goes off,” said Vasquez.

On Nov. 6, the Colonial Quad office alerted Hamilton residents over email that there would be increased Resident Assistant and police presence implemented to deter smoking in stairwells. They also reminded students that smoking or vaping, covering fire alarms or refusing to evacuate, are grounds for disciplinary action or removal from residence. There was also a warning that time spent outside in the cold could be made longer for everyone if students don’t cooperate.

“If Albany Fire Department has concern that individuals have failed to evacuate, they will request room inspections occur prior to permitting re-entry. In these instances, all rooms in the affected building are entered to verify that all individuals have evacuated,” the email said. 

Finally, the email told residents that if behavior did not improve then random Suite Inspections, RA Meetings and security camera footage review would be implemented to ward off future false activations.

Until then, life goes on at Colonial Quad.