An interesting article in Freep.com: “Crime on campus a harsh teacher” is about crime and safety around Michigan universities. Two quotes that struck me and that certainly ties into EMU issues:
The thump-thump on the dorm room doors breaks the predawn stillness.
“Do you know why I woke you up this way?” Eastern Michigan University Officer Norm Harrington barks at bleary-eyed students stumbling to their doors.
Harrington’s not really angry. But he also has been around enough to know that college-age students make easy crime victims.
And on this morning, one month into the 2008-09 school year, he has already found eight unlocked doors in less than a half hour.
That’s one way to get dormies to lock their doors.
Then there’s this:
At Northern Michigan University, a construction worker last year inadvertently walked off with a master key. The incident fast-tracked more than $500,000 in expenses to replace keys with electronic locks and old video surveillance recorders with digital cameras, said housing director Carl Holm.
The electronic doors come with an added benefit, he said: Prop them open and an alarm is sent to campus police.
Just the other day, there was a notice from the EMU Police about a worker at EMU losing “a set of keys that access some interior doors in 10 of our buildings and an external key to one building.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? What I really wish EMU would do though is take the plunge they took at Northern and install electronic locks. Sure, it’d cost a bunch of money up front, but the long-term payoff with safety and security would make it worth it.
I’ve visited a lot of college campuses in the last five years and been taken on a lot of campus tours. One question that always, always comes up in a campus tour is the Residence Hall Security question: how are the dorms secured, who can get in, and in essence how do we know our kid will be safe here? Having electronic pass-key entry is a huge plus to a lot of parents, and an absolute necessity for some.
BTW, the keys were found:
This is good news, but I still think that EMU ought to start phasing in electronic keys. It’s just a matter of time before another set of keys is lost and/or stolen.