Do you remember why you come to college? It was obviously to hear the beautiful melody of fire alarms, ringing multiple times throughout the dark hours of the morning. To have your Community Adviser herd you outside to wait in anything from heat and humidity, to a cold, snowy blizzard until the fire department gives you permission to re-enter the building.

Or so you’d think, given how often that tends to happen to students in the residence halls. But yesterday, this wonder of college life extended beyond the dorms to MacKay Hall as students were beginning their classes for the day.

While I’m sure we could all use the extra exercise of walking quickly and carefully out of our favorite classroom or dorm room to heed the fire marshal’s orders, it isn’t everyone’s favorite way to get in those additional workout minutes. Perhaps students would be discouraged from abusing the Friley alarms if they were forced to do a few laps around the building while waiting for the fire department to arrive.

In any case, the fire alarm is not a toy. It is a tool that exists to be used in emergencies only. It is designed to help protect us from harm. The annoying features of alarms are designed to save lives and protect our property. So don’t joke around and pull the alarm simply because you can.

When they’re overused, fire alarms can be more than just disruptive and can be intimately dangerous. How many of you have woken up at 2 a.m. to the screeching noise of a fire alarm, the inanimate voice of the system telling you to get up and exit the building? You stumble out of bed into a dark hallway with flashing alarm lights and try to get your feet beneath you as you navigate through the confused crowd to the exterior of the building. There is no way to deny this waste of time, when it turns out there was no fire to begin with.

Whether you’re resting, studying or partying, false fire alarms get in the way of everyday routines. Their misuse affects all students, even the culprits who pranked the rest of us, because in the end they too have to go wait outside until Kingdom Come.

If an alarm rings in class and instructors have to leave class lecture or discussion where it is — abruptly — even if the professor is lucky and his class is allowed back into the room in a few minutes, his or her class will be completely distracted and the difficulty inherent in teaching students who are busy using their laptops and phones in class only increases.

Do us all a favor and think twice before you pull that fire alarm. Luckily, laws exist that prevent a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” problem. Otherwise pranksters could get us in serious trouble one of these times.