Some Commons residents left stoves on for religious reasons

When sophomore English major Danielle Goss kept her oven on Oct. 20 while she wasn't using it, she wasn't trying to create a fire hazard — she was trying to cook food while still observing a religious holiday.

Goss and her roommates had been celebrating the Jewish holiday Shemini Atzeret and were following a rule rooted in Jewish tradition that forbids any electric power source to be turned on or off during the holiday. As a result, they had kept their oven on a very low temperature for the day, allowing them to cook when necessary. But after South Campus Commons officials learned of the practice and conducted inspections of every apartment, they turned off more than 35 stoves and ovens that had been left on unattended.

"I was really upset because I was supposed to make two different meals that I'd promised my friends I would bring," Goss said. "And we couldn't cook in our apartment all of a sudden because once the oven was turned off we couldn't turn it back on."

Officials from Capstone, the company that operates South Campus Commons, and students are now struggling to address the problem.

"This practice is just too risky," Dennis Passarella-George, the Resident Life Department's assistant director for housing partnerships, said yesterday. "It's a fire hazard to leave your oven and stove on unattended, and we can't have that happen."

The issue began Oct. 19, when a Commons Building 1 resident complained of smelling gas, according to Capstone's Commons director, Gina Brasty. Upon investigation, maintenance workers found the source of the problem — an apartment with its oven and stove on, unattended. After turning the appliances off, officials believed they had solved the isolated incident.

However, a routine inspection of kitchen and bathroom floors in the same building the following day found multiple units also had ovens and stoves left on low power while unattended. This was enough to prompt an emergency check of every Commons unit to see how many residents had been leaving these appliances on.

"At that point we were very concerned for the life safety of our residents," Brasty said. "This threw the entire staff off; we were very concerned and very surprised."

After discovering the 35 unattended ovens and stoves, Capstone management sent an email to all Commons residents the morning of Oct. 20, reminding them to make sure appliances are turned off when not in use.

But for Jewish students observing the slew of holidays that come every fall, keeping appliances on allows them to cook when they otherwise would not be allowed to.

"I think what Commons has to understand … is why so many people had their burners on," Goss said. "It's not just people were lazy and didn't turn their burners off; we had a purpose for it. Most everyone who had their burners on had been doing this for a long time, and I think everyone knows what they're doing."

Since the issue arose so suddenly, Resident Life officials began working with Hillel staff members late last week to brainstorm solutions. So far, officials said that little progress has been made but they are actively working toward a solution.

"This is an issue, and we have to manage it," said Cindy Felice, Resident Life's South Campus associate director. "There are solutions to it; we just have to find them."

"We're going to have to see how we can educate our residents better," said Passarella-George. "I don't know what the answers will be though."

For now, some students said they will continue to leave their stoves on, though Goss says there is always room for compromise.

"If Commons is so worried, they can work [with us] by creating a system to turn them on and off, since I'm pretty sure most Jews won't stop leaving them on for the holidays."

israel@umdbk.com