Collegio A Volta is deeply committed to develop as a place where students and staff can live and work safely and securely. On the safety front, the year 2012/13 has seen a major upgrade of the fire alarm system. On the security front the College replaced the aging, key-based system for building access with a modern system based on electronic cards. Further developments in the Health & Safety area are envisaged during the academic year 2013/14 (see below).
Safety
The improved fire alarm system that College has installed has been in operation since May 2013 and performs well. There are two further improvements that College has requested from EdISU afterward. The first improvement is the introduction of two modes of beeps as opposed to the single one currently available: for example an intermittent beep to indicate alert status without the need to evacuate the building and a continuous beep indicating that all College students and staff need to evacuate the building. The second improvement is the the positioning of posts and signs in the garden areas to indicate the fire assembly points, namely the areas where students and staff who have evacuated the building after a fire drill should gather awaiting for further instructions from the College safety officers.
Security
The new electronic card system for building access will be operational from 2 September 2013. This system brings a massive improvement to the security of College students and staff: the old system based on metal keys could not prevent malicious cloning of the keys leading to a security breakdown. Electronic cards, in contrast are very difficult to clone and can be promptly inactivated in case of damage or loss. A new gate has also been buit at the back of the College that allows direct access to College from via Abbiategrasso. This is also an important development because it enables access to College 24 hours a day from via Abbiategrasso and is can be used by wheel chair users. An unresolved security issue, instead, is the lack of external lights on the South and North fronts of the building as well as at the back of the College. There is good lighting at the front of the College but low level lighting (or better one, if possible) is required on all College sides. EdISU has committed itself to the installation of external lighting at Collegio Volta during the academic year 2013/14.
Information
Students entering College are given a copy of the College Health & Safety document (in English) or the correposnding EdISU Health & Safety document (in Italian). The two documents summarise major safety or security risks, the procedures that should be followed in order to minimise such risks (fire, flooding, etc) and the procedures that should be followed if an emergency has arisen. The two documents (Health & Safety Rules - in English - and Regole di Salute e Sicurezza - in Italian - can be downloaded from the respective links here or from the page on College Rules and Regulations.
Health & Safety