By Christiana SchmitzThe Daily Northwestern
No one will be able to enter or leave residence halls and residential colleges except through their main doors beginning Spring Quarter, university officials announced Wednesday.
Most dorms and residential colleges already limit access by activating alarms on secondary entrances overnight. The new policy would leave alarms on those doors active at all times.
Administrators proposed the plan in November in response to nine dorm intrusions last year. But the proposal met resistance from Associated Student Government and students. An ASG poll on the HereAndNow Web site showed that about 90 percent of students were opposed to the plan.
“I don’t think the outcome was ever in doubt, but there was a question about how we would do it,” said William Banis, vice president for student affairs.
A security task force in the Student Affairs office studied the poll’s results before making a decision, Banis said.
“We’re very clear that this is going to be unpopular with our residential hall students,” he said. “But it’s a matter of safety versus convenience.”
Banis said there might be some exceptions to these rules, which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The decision to go ahead with the plan was announced to ASG leaders and representatives from the Residential Hall Association and the Residential College Board at a meeting Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re opposed to this,” said RHA Vice President Sebastian Rodriguez, a Weinberg sophomore. “We’re frustrated that, even with the poll results, the administration still went and did this.”
Banis said he recognized students’ unhappiness with the decision but that the university had no choice but to go ahead with its plan.
“The intrusions last year cannot be ignored and we have a responsibility, even if it’s going to be really unpopular, to safeguard student security,” Banis said.
University Police Chief Bruce Lewis said he agreed that the administration’s decision was necessary.
“As the chief of police, I’m legally obligated to use my training, education and experiences to ensure the overall safety of NU,” Lewis said at Wednesday’s ASG meeting.
After the intrusions last year, the university hired Aegis Protection Group, a private consulting firm, to assess the campus security situation, Banis said.
In its preliminary report in November, the firm suggested leaving alarms on secondary entrances activated at all times, Banis said.
“I was planning on doing this last Thanksgiving, but we waited until the ASG report came in,” Banis said.
Dan Keller, the executive director of campus crime prevention programs for Aegis Protection Group, said NU was adhering fairly closely to the firm’s recommendations.
“The university overall makes a pretty strong commitment to residential hall security,” Keller said.
Other aspects of the plan include hiring professional guards to replace student security monitors.
The administration also wants to improve lighting and trim shrubbery on campus, install security cameras in public areas and strengthen student safety education, beginning with New Student Week.
“There’s a lot of police theory and research behind this,” Banis said. “A lot of thought has gone into this.”
Reach Christiana Schmitz at [email protected].
