Sure, holding the door open for the person behind you is considered polite, but is it safe?
Over the past five years, all buildings on campus have been fitted with key card entry systems. You tap your ID and you get in. Simple. But people without IDs are still finding their way into locked buildings on nights and weekends.
Over the past three weeks, members of the Creightonian staff have been walking the campus with non-Creighton students to see how secure this campus is. We tested 30 buildings on campus, including all of the dorms, to find out how easy it is to access locked buildings. (see special section for a map of all the buildings checked)
Of all the buildings checked, intruders were not able to access the Administration Building, Gallagher Hall, Heider Hall and Kennefick Hall.
Cate Buddenberg, University of Nebraska at Omaha senior, traveled to Deglman, Kiewitt, Gallagher, Swanson and McGloin residence halls last week.
“I was surprised I was able to get in so easily,” she said. “I clearly didn’t belong and I looked lost, but no one said anything.”
She traveled up to the top floors in the dorms and wandered around the hallways. She said even though people looked at her curiously, no one asked her what she was doing. Gallagher Hall was the only dorm she was not allowed into. She walked in the front door and was stopped by a desk workers. She told them she just needed to run upstairs, but they wouldn’t let her pass.
“They were the only ones who really seemed to care,” she said. “I was hoping I couldn’t get in to any dorms, but just that first one (Gallagher) stopped me.”
Dustin Crichton, assistant director of Residence Life, said desk workers go through extensive training in order to be ready to work a front desk. After taking an online quiz, they are trained at the desk in their specific halls. If Residence Life gets calls complaining about desk workers, or if they answer incorrectly on quizzes they get throughout the year, they can be put through the training again. Crichton described their job as the eyes and ears of the residence halls, watching people who walk into the buildings and listen for cards to make a beeping noise when they enter the halls.
“But it’s not all up to the desk workers,” Crichton said. “It puts them in a weird position to tell their peers that they have to swipe their card, or to call a Residence Director [RD], so we should all be doing our part to swipe cards and not to hold doors.”
Dr. Rick Rossi, director of Residence Life, said the university spends up to $10,000 a year to update security at residence halls.
First, in 1996, they began installing cameras in laundry rooms and other places where RAs and desk workers couldn’t keep an eye out for activity. Now, they are adding more cameras at the front of buildings.
“Initially we installed cameras for surveillance, but now we are adding more for recording,” Rossi said. “[Letting strangers in a building] is very foolish because you never know who you are letting in,” he said. “I always use my card because I don’t want to put the desk worker into the position of asking me who I am. It really is a community effort.”
Mitch Barry, a UNO junior, attempted to get into Heider and Kenefick residence halls, but was unable to get in.
Barry made it through the first set of doors and was allowed into Kenefick’s front entryway by the desk workers. Once in, the workers asked for his room number and denied further access when he didn’t have one.
“I think the Resident Life people working at the front desk of Kenefick did a great job,” Barry said. “They did what they were supposed to.
“But Heider definitely has more security,” he said. “You can’t even open up the front door, unlike Kenefick when you could at least get into the lobby.”
According to Deptartment of Justice statistics, universities are safer than their neighborhoods, but that doesn’t stop crime from happening to students. CU students reported three muggings in the first month of classes alone.
While Public Safety patrols area between 16th and 32nd Streets and between Cuming and Dodge Streets, Rick McAuliffe, director of Creighton Public Safety, said crime happens sporadically in this part of town.
“We have a population of 7,000 students, 2,000 faculty and around 1,000 visitors in any given day. When you have a group that size, you are bound to have incidents,” he said.
One important piece in keeping campus safe is hiring a staff with different expertise. Public Safety officers have experience in the military, medicine or paramedics, law enforcement or were former Creighton students.
“We have a good group here, with good skills and a responsible student body,” he said. “I think we are doing well.”
A student, who asked to remain anonymous, said Creighton provides a program where a “buddy,” usually a work-study for Public Safety, can escort students around campus after dark and on weekends.
The student, who has worked for public safety before, said there is more that can be done.
Two problems persist with this program. One, no students use it, he said. The other, “I wouldn’t know what to do if someone came up to me or a person I was escorting and say, tried to mug us,” he said. “The only real service I would provide is making students feel safer.”
Still, of the 10 buddies on staff at any point in time, all carry walkie talkies to radio in suspicious activity.
The source said he never saw suspicious activity while patrolling campus, but then again, he wasn’t always looking for it.
“Sometimes I would clock in and go back to my room and do homework. I’d leave my walkie talkie on, but what are the odds I am the person who sees like a major car accident or something?” he said.
He said he was not the only person working for public safety to slack on the job. He would see “buddies” chatting with friends or eating in Brandeis during their shifts. Even the hired officers, he said, could do more.
“I listened in on the walkie talkies and they are just chatting some of the time. Just sitting in their cars,” he said. “It’s a boring job a lot of the time, but maybe these officers could use that time to get to know the students better. That would be a step to breaking down some of that strained relationship between Public Safety and students.”
Neil Bhatterai, president of the Inter Residence Hall Government, said a big part of staying safe is creating a community where you live and taking responsibility for the building you live in.
“We shouldn’t only rely on staff members to keep us safe, it’s a personal responsibility as well,” he said.