Fifty-seven percent of Iowa’s college students who live in dormitories are in buildings that are not equipped with fire-suppression sprinkler systems, a survey by The Des Moines Register found. State regulations require sprinkler systems in new residence halls, but colleges are not required to retrofit older buildings with them, the newspaper said. It noted plans by several colleges and universities to add sprinklers in older residential buildings over the next decade, but said others had “a spotty record” of installing the devices.

The survey looked only at dormitories operated by the colleges, omitting fraternity and sorority houses and off-campus apartments that the institutions do not control. The article mentions several fatal fires involving college students in residential halls or fraternity houses, including the blaze that killed three students at Seton Hall University seven years ago.