For months now, NU students have continued to vocally criticize the university’s decision to alarm dorm side doors. However, this narrow-minded complaining drowns out other worrisome policy changes made in the name of dorm security.
The administration’s new plans show that it seems to care more about reacting to crimes after they have already happened, instead of proactively working to prevent them in the first place.
Most notably, the security cameras to be installed in dorms will record all the time, but tapes will only be watched after a crime has happened, as an investigatory tool. No one will see videos of potential intruders until long after they’ve hit the road.
Additionally, University Police-trained security guards will replace student security monitors, but they will not be sworn officers. In case of a problem, their only power will be to radio UP for help. Essentially, they will just be security monitors with walkie-talkies and a fancier job title. They won’t even work in residence halls and residential colleges with fewer than 150 students, although UP has hired four more officers to help patrol campus.
There are still problems with dorm security policy, and inconvenient security doors are not the only one.
As Foster-Walker Complex President Eric Parker told The Daily in a story published Thursday, NU’s policy-in-progress still has plenty of weak spots.
“It’s not resolved,” he said.