USA Today published articles today based on an investigation into the causes of deadly off-campus fires that have killed 54 college students since 2000.

According to one article, the key ingredients in the fatal fires are alcohol abuse, by both victims and perpetrators (many blazes are deliberately set); a lack of the adult supervision that may be found in on-campus dormitories; and the poor condition of many off-campus residences, which encourages a lax attitude toward safety.

Another article describes how some off-campus housing, like much cheap rental property, is rife with safety-code violations, including blocked exits, the absence of sprinklers, and a lack of good-quality smoke alarms.

Colleges usually take swift action when fires strike their own dormitories (The Chronicle, March 10, 2000), and there are often calls for legislative measures to require improvements such as sprinklers, but such costly mandates have usually failed to pass (The Chronicle, October 12, 2001).

But for colleges, making such improvements is easy compared with the problems of off-campus housing. The message for colleges, USA Today suggests, is that they will take some of the blame for the death of a student in an off-campus residence, even if the college is not the landlord. From the perspective of many parents, when they send their children off to college, they entrust it with the students’ lives. On this issue, at least, in loco parentis is alive.