LETTER: Million dollar gates will only provide false sense of security

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by Jerald Winakur

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To the editor,

As the father of two undergraduate daughters currently attending Rice University, I have been following the recent campus security developments with grave concern.

Despite the apparent resolution of the most recent rash of assaults, I can unequivocally state that my anxieties are not allayed in the least.

I have to agree with Mr. Jason Ciarochi in his letter ("More lights, officers better than gates") published in the Jan. 26 issue of the Thresher .

The expenditure of almost one million dollars on the part of the University for permanent entrance gates seems but a cosmetic fix to a major security problem for the Rice campus.

These gates will, at best, lend a false sense of security to those potential students and their families visiting the campus for the first time.

I hope this is not an intention of those in a decision-making capacity.

It seems very unlikely that these proposed gates will lower campus crime, an important statistic that colleges and universities are mandated to compile and report for the purpose of informing prospective students and their families.

I hope that if these gates are constructed, that additional, more substantive and proven measures be undertaken as well.

In the meantime, I hope that Rice students will continue to be personally vigilant, and not be lulled into any false sense of security.

And I hope that university officials are not lulled as well.

Jerald Winakur, M.D.

San Antonio

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the February 9, 1996 issue.

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