Posted on November 24 at 4:20 p.m.

Thurston,

Professor Work is much more eloquent than I can ever hope to be. I'm glad he explained, much better than I had, the feeling of knowing the small prayer chapel was spared.

And thank you for being who you are. Because of your personality, you were able to form a new opinion, because of a rational dialogue. That's hard for so many people to do.

And to those who say that those who aren't native to Santa Barbara and therefore have no respect for the town or the beauty...my one regret is that I didn't get enough pictures of the scenery. I took a lot of pictures, many of the local landscape. I now wish I had taken more. SB was a place I considered paradise.

I met a woman from SF the other day who said her city was the most beautiful city in California. I actually told her that SB was so much more beautiful and SF could never compare. And just think, I live in SB for four years for school before moving back to Houston.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to move back and live there permantely. If only to wake up to the mountains every morning and the nice ocean breeze every day. I love the fact there are no skyscrapers there, unlike Houston.

I told my family that everything seemed to be so suited to the surroundings, it was almost a hidden gem on the coast. They got out there for graduation (I'm a Westmont alum) and were speechless at the beauty. They didn't want to leave.

I will admit though, as a Westmont student, I visited the Arches once. But given the opportunity to go back, I refused. I am from Texas, where we take trespassing very seriously, and I did not want to participate in trekking over a person's property. I know many people who went once and never went back, for the same reasons.

And yes, perhaps all the schools in the area should teach about fire safety. It would make a good investment.

Megan

On Tea Fire Cause Is Determined

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Posted on November 19 at 10:19 p.m.

For the person who suggested that some of the recently donated $75 million be used to jump start some of the rebuilding in the community, if it is alright with the anynomous donor, then it probably will be done.

As for the fact that Westmont students and alums believe that God spared the prayer chapel while allowing the other houses to burn is just plain stupid. Nobody wishes for their professor's houses to burn down. The fact that the prayer chapel was still standing gave hope to the alumni and the students that God was still present. If we believed that it was a good thing God burned down the other houses, then wouldn't it make sense to ask him to protect the houses of our professors and fellow students? Or the alumni in town who lost their homes?

If Westmont is more of a mega religious institution than a school, then I seriously need my money back from there. I could use the money, cause I'm more on the broke side of life than rich. Cause my grandparents co-signed my loans to send me there and I spent a ton of money on books to use in classes. I didn't realize that when I was studying the poetry of T.S. Eliot that I was being brainwashed into attending church more. I spent most Sunday mornings in bed, sleeping in, and a lot of time figuring out which chapels I could miss. It took me a year to actually step foot in a church after leaving Westmont. I must have missed something there.

As for fire education at Westmont. No we don't take a class on it. But we are told in our student handbook that we can't even have candles in our room. Students do get disciplined at Westmont, for things as small as lighting a candle on a birthday cake. But off campus, the school can't hold the student's hand.

It's sad to see such hatred towards a school that has tried it's best to be good neighbors to everyone in Montecito. There has been no proof against Westmont. So we have hours on when guys and girls can be in the same dorm room, shouldn't that be a good thing in today's world of pregnant teenagers? If I was a parent I would be proud of that policy at Westmont. I don't want to know my daughter or son is spending the night with a member of the opposite sex when they should be studying for calculus or something. What's so wrong with wanting to stick to a different standard?

Can we all please act like adults? It's not about what school they went to. It should be about what the community can do to ensure that something of this magnitude can never happen again. If that means instituting fire education classes in high schools and colleges, then so be it. Now is the time for Santa Barbara to show the world that it is strong.

On Tea Fire Cause Is Determined

Posted on November 15 at 10:04 p.m.

Dear Mr. BartSimms,

I wonder when the last time you saw Westmont Campus was. Yes there are some trees near the gym, but from my recollection (and I haven't seen Westmont since May 2007, so I may be a bit rusty here) they are only a few years old, barely taller than myself and the nearest one to the gym is a few feet away. The most flammable trees that are closest to the gym, are up a hill, a nice distace away and seperated from the gym by a road and a giant sidewalk.

The reason the students were evacuated to the gym is 1)it's the safety zone for that area. Nearby residents are supposed to evacuate to the gym if they have no where else to go.

2)It's a pure concrete building. Yes, the oxygen will have been depleted, but it's not going to burn.

3) The area around the gym is surrounded by a sidewalk on two sides, a pool on the back, and a building on the remaining side. It makes for a great place for firefighters to make a good stand and defense against the fire.

4) The administration has made it clear in the past to the students on campus (at least when I was there) that the evacuation plans had been made in conjunction with local fire officals and community leaders. Much better to have students head to the gym than clog up the small, windy, two lane road that leads to up to Westmont and other parts of Montecito.

No parent that I've heard from has complained that their student was put in a concrete gym with supplies to last for at least 48 hours. In fact several faculty and staff members were in the gym with the students. Also with the students was the President of Westmont College, who flew up from a conference to be with his students.

Oh yeah, I've also been hearing from high school students who were at Westmont for a Preview Days and they say they want to attend Westmont even more now, knowing how the school responds to situations like this. And from what I understand their parents are proud of the college for responding the way it did.

Now if there had been time to get the students off campus before the fire hit, then I'm sure the college would have arranged for that to happen. As it stands though, we should be glad that no student was injured and be praying for the faculty members who lost their homes. Many of whom are my former professors.

If you talk to your scientist friends again, you can ask them to stop asking questions about the idea of having a safe zone on a college campus that has been worked out between college officals and the fire officals and ask them to start working on ways to help the people affected by this fire. Because that's the alumni and friends of Westmont are doing. We're not sitting around demanding the answers to questions that the parents and students already have answered.

On Major Losses for Westmont Faculty Housing