Students may no longer have to worry about slipping on staircases outside of Eleven 01 Café if the Resident Hall Student Association (RHSA) has its way.

RHSA passed a resolution Oct. 29 promoting staircase safety outside of the cafeteria, where metal edges on the outside stairs leading to the Stevens Court and Mercer residence halls make the area dangerous, especially when the stairs are slippery from rain.

“I have slipped on the last couple of stairs myself,” said Jean McKeever, the Stevens-Mercer Hall council representative to RHSA and the resolution’s sponsor. “I have seen people fall and lose their lunch. And usually you can tell when someone has lost their lunch because the crows hang out there and get all the food.”

While RHSA has no documented cases of student injuries, the idea of drafting a resolution to notify HFS Facilities about the hazards was well-received at the RHSA General Council meeting when presented by McKeever and co-sponsor Ciara Clemons.

“It’s one of those things that you deal with and don’t really think about,” said Clemons, who is also the president of the Stevens-Mercer Hall Council. “But once we brought it up in general council, everyone was like yeah, something needs to be done about that.”

Officially known as Resolution 0809-001 in Support of Improved Staircase Safety, it focuses on encouraging HFS to take immediate action to protect students from falling and injuring themselves. It is the first resolution passed through RHSA that directly involves safety issues, said Andrew Clark, RHSA president.

Laminated red signs have been placed leading up and down the stairs to alert students of the possible danger. Further solutions are being investigated by HFS Facilities, which started to develop ideas to fix the problem while the resolution was still being discussed by RHSA.

“As of my last update a week ago, HFS was working with a vendor to completely recover the staircase behind Eleven 01 with a new slip-resistant aluminum tread,” Clark wrote in an e-mail. “They were awaiting a timeline from the vendor as to when the materials would be delivered and installed.”

Sophomore Allen Sy, a resident of Stevens Court, said he’s never seen anyone fall down near that staircase.

“Maybe it gets a little crowded with people going up and down the stairs,” he said. “I would still support [the resolution] because there’s always the potential for someone to get hurt.”

Reach contributing writer Heather Milligan at development@dailyuw.com.