Ignored rules threaten safety

Living in a small town on a close-knit campus may be making many Georgia College & State University residents feel a little too safe.

“We are fortunate that this is a safe place, but that doesn’t mean that something couldn’t happen in a heartbeat,” said Paul Jahr, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and director of University Housing.

According to housing personnel, the failure of students to comply with regulations pertaining to non-residents is becoming a potential serious problem. Residents are not following escorting policies, and too many non-residents are gaining entry into residence halls.

On September 3, 2004 three suspicious, unescorted men were removed from Foundation Hall and trespassed from GC&SU property for one year. Just recently, in a Colonnade investigation, a non-resident attempted to gain entry into each of the dorms on campus to test how easy it is for a non-resident to enter. The intruder was only questioned by students or faculty at two of the six dorms and successfully gained entry to four.

Jahr referred to one of the issues that personnel face as “tailgating.”

This is a method where non-residents follow residents into a dormitory by walking closely behind them. Many people also gain entry into the dorms simply by asking.

Jahr referred to these problems as “unfortunate and common occurrences.” He expressed his concern that students often fail to question the motives of tailgaters.

“[Tailgating] can be a problem. We encourage residents that this is their home and part of security is the keys and locks policy. That keeps people who aren’t supposed to be in the building out,” said Stephanie Flannagan, Wells residence hall director.

According to Jahr and Flannagan, the housing staff feels confident that the current methods of security are the best that can be accomplished with available funding. Jahr said that if money were not the issue, the safest method of security would be for each of the dorms to have one central entrance and a 24-hour monitored security desk.

Many students feel the current security methods may already be too strict.

“I think there is too much security. All guests have to be escorted, but there are so many people looking out…it should be okay,” said Bell Hall resident Faira Holiday.

Freshman Andrew Schroeder,an Adams Hall resident, agreed that some of the current security methods are unnecessary.

“I think they’ve overdone security, and they’re being paranoid about it. There’s really no need for the cards for each dorm,” said Schroeder.

While faculty and students may not agree about security methods, the minimal occurrence of incidents involving safety issues is indisputable.

Overall, the deputy director of Public Safety, Richard Goodson, feels confident about the current methods of on-campus security. Goodson said there is always room for improvement, but he feels that the implementation of cameras, swipe cards, call boxes and resident assistants on each floor have greatly improved security.

According to both Jahr and Goodson, there have been little complaints pertaining to security in the dorms.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 8 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry