Should Wabash men feel safe in their living quarters?
Summer thefts and a Bachelor check of locked doors Tuesday morning suggest the campus is open to easy theft.
A Bachelor photographer and reporter trekked across campus from 2:30 a.m. and 4 a.m., checking living units for security. What the Bachelor found was unlocked or propped open doors and windows. The findings exceeded expectations.
The College administration is well aware of the problem and have hinted at changes coming this semester.
Of the 14 campus living units, ten were accessible without keys. For many residences, a passerby or thief could simply walk into the front door. For others, side doors or ground floor windows were propped open. Only four residences were impenetrable: Kappa Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon, College Hall, and Theta Delta Chi.
Campus services personnel check all buildings each evening, including living units. They submit a report to the Associate Dean of Students every morning. Dean Warner said their Monday night findings differed from the Bachelor’s.
“I will say that they found some doors open last night but not quite as many as you did,” Warner said. “We need to recognize this is a huge place, and one guy riding around on a golf cart is not going to be able to make sure that everyone's done their business. At the end of the day it resides with all of us.”
Resident assistants and fraternity presidents said they were not surprised by the findings and have been collaborating with their residents, administration officials, campus service workers, and even alumni to improve basic housing security.
“We have a house manager and he tries to keep the door locked after hours,” said John Holmes ‘09, president of Lambda Chi Alpha, where the front door was unlocked. “However, if people are leaving or coming back in late, they unlock the door and then forget to lock it again. Our alumni are buying us a keypad entry system for our own house since a campus wide system has yet to be installed.”
Martindale Resident Assistant Micah Milliman said there is a system in place currently in which campus service watchmen come around to lock all independent housing entrances. However, Milliman also admitted the system can be and has been thwarted.
“We're having troubles keeping people from opening the doors and propping them open with rocks and trashcans, so anyone can just walk in,” Milliman said. “We are also supposed to keep all of the first floor windows locked all of the time, but that never happens either. It's impossible to keep up with everything that goes on because you can take the rocks out of the door on your way to the library and when you come back in 30 minutes it's propped open again. I can see the campus moving towards card swiping to get us into our living units.“
Campus security has been a hot-button topic in recent years, as a result of repeated thefts. Over the summer, interns living at College Hall were robbery victims. Nearly half a dozen students had personal belongings stolen or saw the thief in the dorm. Sophomore Will Weber’s laptop and wallet contents were stolen. His roommate Andrew Sparks ’11 woke up and saw a middle-age man “in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts just as he was leaving the room.” That’s when they noticed Weber’s desk was empty. By the time Sparks woke Weber, the man had disappeared. Even though he had a bad experience, Weber doesn’t think the college should go overboard on security.
“I was furious that someone was able to get into the building and my room,” Weber said. “Then, of all things, I started mentally analyzing the black market economics of that kind of theft. My Macbook Pro and everything out of my wallet was stolen and Sparks' laptop was stolen as well. The security question is interesting. Security cards will be an extra, cumbersome level of security for students because they will still need keys for their rooms. More security restricts freedom. I would rather be robbed again than ever have security cameras on campus. Same goes for police with the power to arrest. As Benjamin Franklin said ‘Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.’ “
Shortly after the theft, administration officias commissioned a security audit by Don Lyons of Lyon’s & Associates. Although he looked at many issues, Dean of Students Michael Raters said he didn’t “sound any alarms” to college officials. But he did offer recommendations.
The installation of card swiping units is one of many recommendations being considered. Chief Financial Officer Larry Griffith said college officials researched the costs of installing a swipe system campus-wide. Once administration officials decide whether to implement the system, full installation could take less than a month, Griffith said. But the reason no action has been taken yet centers on questions of staffing and responsibility.
Whether the swipe system is installed on a few living units or all of them, excluding off campus houses, someone – a possible security director - will have to maintain it’s day-to-day operations and manage a database of ID swipe cards. Even if the system is installed, security issues in living units may not be resolved.
“[A swipe card system] is not going to stop someone from sticking a rock in the door,” Griffith said. “And if you could lose a key you could probably lose an ID card. Or, if you go workout or something, you may not take it with you, which is why doors get propped.”
President Patrick White is looking over recommendations from a subcommittee of the Campus Security Committee. He will submit that report to the Board of Trustees at the its October meeting. He said it was important that any security changes - cameras, security patrol, or even swipe cards - be thought through thoroughly as it relates to how it would affect campus culture.
“I think we get complacent because it’s a small town,” White said. “We'll need to concern ourselves with staffing; what is the appropriate staff; what's the appropriate level of security and security patrol on our campus. And I think what level of security and patrolling do we want. What do we need? If we have a police officer going around campus at night how does it change our culture? You can't plan for every detail but you can plan a little more comprehensively than we have.”
He said students may notice changes in a few weeks. In any event, he said students should be updated sometime before fall ends.