EDITORIAL: SECURITY

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University deserves praise for gates, additional campus officers

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While this move was at first seen as poor administrative judgement by the student body as a whole, the university has since backed up their move to close off the entrances with several important security measures which will be beneficial to students and should be applauded. In fact, the recent announcement by the administration that $1.1 million would be used for security improvements has prompted the local media to stand up and take notice. The Houston Chronicle 's Todd Ackerman wrote a front-page Metropolitan section story on the improvements on Aug. 3 that was accompanied by a large photo. The article prompted KPRC Channel 2 to run a story by reporter Jim Grimes on the evening news where Grimes interviewed Student Association President Maryana Iskander, SA Publications Committee Chair Patrick Saunders and Rice Thresher Co-Editors Charles Klein and Vivek Rao. Rice News and the Rice Thresher each ran separate stories on the improvements.

We are sure that the administration gets sick of the Thresher constantly criticizing it for policies, and we will continue to do so, but at this point, we felt it very important to step back and give the administration proper praise.

Some of you may have already noticed the increased number of Campus Police roaming around the colleges at night. Chief of Police Mary Voswinkel, Assistant Chief of Police Thomas Bickers and Lieutenant Terry Ryals underwent an extensive process to hire the five new officers who will patrol the colleges and Graduate House.

Each step of the way, students were consulted on what qualities the officers needed and who would work best with students. Hundreds of people applied for the positions. The hundreds were narrowed down to a manageable number who were then sent through an extensive screening process that involved written tests and interactions with students in role-playing situations. All of this to find five officers who would be there for the students in their time of need and to prevent another Jones incident (1994) from occurring.

Included in this big process was an underlying attitude by the campus police to hire officers who would interact with the students in a positive way. Officers who, according to Voswinkel, are peace keepers not law enforcers.

All too often, we as students take for granted the difficult situation that the Campus Police are in where they are their to make sure that nothing major goes wrong while also looking the other way at parties and such -- and they have looked the other way hundreds of times. We're not saying that they are always perfect, but the police department at Rice has become a very respectable unit in the city. Voswinkel cites a recent move by local police departments to hire away trained RUPD officers. Even with these challenges facing the police department, five new faces appeared on campus who are there for students to talk to, get to know and rely on.

With the improved lighting, the plans for more permanent gates and a functioning traffic signal at Entrance 8, the university has taken great steps toward making Rice a more secure place. Even the controversial gate decision has reaped its benefits as motor vehicle thefts have plummeted by over 50 percent.

Of course, one drawback of the improvements is the movement toward sealing off the campus from the surrounding area. But the decision to use gates rather than build a permanent wall around the campus has yet to create the sense of isolation from the rest of the city that a wall would bring. Only time will tell if the university has achieved the proper balance between making the campus safe and making the campus feel "open" to the outside world, so for now the Thresher wants to congratulate the administration on a job well done.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 1, 1995 issue.

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