One of the most commonly recurring phrases while touring colleges is “security.” For schools to be competitive, they need to sell campus security to the parents, so they believe that their “babies” are safe out in the big world. Security, however, is neither as stringent as is advertised, nor does it have to be.
While Security Services is concerned with the safety of students, a big part of it involves the parking lots and helping people who have been locked out, not preventing bad things from happening to students. Even where they are sincerely useful there are some faults.
There are some significant faults in the system, namely involving getting locked out. Girls who have been locked out of their room after a shower get a significantly faster response when they call to be let in than boys. Boys in a similar state usually have to wait slightly longer. While this has roots in logic, specifically that girls are more likely to be assaulted, there is also a certain level of discomfort for men who have been locked out with only a towel. While it is less likely to be dangerous, it is still awkward.
Additionally, there are also times when security will not let students into the buildings. Freshmen Danae Smith and Rory Carruthers both cited times in which they had to wait outside their buildings because security was not active at that time. Smith was locked out of her building over spring break at 10:15 at night. “They [security] were basically like, ‘call back later’,” she said.
A few minutes later, a nice passerby let her into her dorm where she waited to call security again to ask that they let her into her room. Smith said that “if I didn’t get into my building then I would have felt scared” because there were so few people on campus. While Smith was likely never in any danger, this instance shows a disconnect between what parents are promised and what students experience.
Carruthers has a similavr story. Sometime at the beginning of the school year, during the middle of the day, he was locked out of his room. He was told to wait two hours and then call back. “[I] called them [security] back like a minute before four [p.m.] and they…almost made me call back a minute later,” Carruthers said.
On top of that, Carruthers stated that “they took an additional 30 minutes to come after that.” While it was unlikely that he would be in any danger, it nevertheless shows how campus security is misrepresented by the school.
Admittedly, having a backup for when a key accidentally gets misplaced is a godsend. Students in off-campus housing do not have that option. Yet if the service is spotty or inadequate, then it should not be displayed as something it is not.
Security is an amazing service, and we should not underestimate their usefulness. At the same time we also should not use the service to entice incoming students and their parents with false advertisements.