Complete installation of security features at Northwestern’s Music Administration Building, originally scheduled for the first week of April, has been delayed because several utilities haven’t arrived, said Rene Machado, associate dean of administration and finance for the School of Music. The project should be completed within the next several weeks.
A Marlok keycard system was installed on time but has not been activated because administrators are waiting for corresponding alarms to arrive, Machado said.
“We’re working out the software still,” he said. “Until we have it figured out, we don’t want to lock people out who need to use the building.”
Safety improvements were scheduled for the building after University Police conducted a student safety survey. The Music Administration Building, which is open through the night so students can use practice rooms, was one of the facilities for which students voiced the most concern, said Ronald Nayler, vice president for facilities management. Students have reported seeing unauthorized people wandering the building at night, he said.
“We didn’t have any incidents, but we thought we would do something before anything happened,” he said.
The survey also prompted the development of a committee of students, faculty and staff that will re-evaluate safety in each university building. This committee eventually may allow for the installation of keycard systems on all buildings, Nayler said.
Daniel Gernazian, a Music and Weinberg junior, uses the practice rooms in Regenstein Hall more frequently than those in the Music Administration Building, but he said safety improvements will help make students feel more secure when practicing at night.
“I’ve been in MAB at 4 a.m. before and I’ve seen weird people in there before,” he said. “I know I practice at night a lot, and anything they can do (to increase safety) is very important.”
The Music Administration Building’s Marlok system is similar to the system already in place at Regenstein Hall. Students will be able to enter the building with an authorized WildCARD when the system is activated.
Devices that limit the opening of basement and first-floor windows were successfully installed during Spring Break, Machado said. Windows now open only five inches.
Lighting in stairwells and student lounges also will be upgraded, and Music administrators are developing plans to put in more lights outside the building, Machado said.
Emergency phones will be installed on interior walls and a campus phone will be placed outside the north entrance. The campus phone will allow students who don’t have approved WildCARDs to call offices within the building to be let in.
Machado also said he has consulted landscaping personnel so bushes deemed unsafe by UP can be removed from the perimeter of the building. Police were concerned that intruders might have been hiding in the bushes, he said.
“We’re always looking to evaluate safety,” Machado said. “This is a major step forward for us because this is a building that has just been open (to the public). We’re now in control.”
Reach Margaret Matray at [email protected].
