For some dorms, it seems as though students have to provide three forms of legal ID and a fingerprint to get in. But for others, it seems to only take a strategically located doorstop.
The lack of a campuswide dorm security policy makes it easier for students — and non-students — to get in and out of dorms, putting some students in a position to be vulnerable to criminal activity and making some students feel unsafe.
Although some dorms have a card-swiping system in place, some do not. According to Residential and Hospitality Services, or RHS, Director of Marketing Communications Tony Frewen, there will be a card-swiping security system in all of the dorms by summer 2012.
Although that would be a step up in the security and safety of students on campus, it’s a step that should have been taken a long time ago.
With different systems for different dorms, campus security currently is spotty. MSU should establish a single safety standard across all dorms.
If there is one standard, students will be less confused about security standards across campus and students will be more likely to abide by them.
Unfortunate incidents, such as the recent racial incidents and recent sexual assaults on campus, shouldn’t have to happen to students before university administrators work to step up dorm security. Students should have been offered more comprehensive safety measures before this summer.
Dorms are, for all intents and purposes, students’ homes. It’s very important to students, just as it is to everyone else, to keep their home life private. As difficult as it can be to share a home with someone, it’s more difficult to know someone could walk into your home for any reason.
That’s a gross violation of students’ expectation to privacy and safety — one that shouldn’t happen with a single campus-wide dorm security policy.
Students pay a lot of money to attend MSU and expect the opportunity to receive a quality education in return.
Part of a quality education is a calm environment in which to live and learn. MSU strongly encourages students to live on campus, so it should make the effort to help students feel protected and safe.
No student wants to pay to live where they think they could be in danger.
Student safety should not be entirely up to the student. Yes, students can lock their doors and put their valuables in non-obvious places.
But the burden of preventing unwanted individuals from entering the dorm hallways falls on the RHS. It’s not as if students constantly can police their dorms; they have to live their lives.
It shouldn’t be a hassle for students to live on campus because of too much or too little security.
Having the same security in place across campus is something RHS should have done a long time ago to make the lives of students safer.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
