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The Rice Thresher
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by Rachel Shiffrin for the thresher A number of improvements are in store to help improve campus safety, following recommendations by the ad hoc campus security committee. Due to concerns about improper lighting in the stadium parking lot, new lights were added and existing lighting was redistributed this summer. This includes lighting underneath the stands, Campus Police Chief Bill Taylor said. Additional lights were also added at Entrance 1 and at the track stadium, which is also the future site of the new soccer field. The committee also recommended changes to the lock systems on campus. Equipment for Rice's keycard access system is no longer manufactured and soon will no longer be serviced, Taylor said, so plans are in place to upgrade to a new system. As for inside the buildings, Food and Housing Director Mark Ditman said emphasis was put on bathroom access in response to several bathroom trespassing incidents last year. After testing keypad locks at Will Rice College, the site of the incidents, F&H added the keypads were to all communal bathrooms in the colleges. Each resident student has been issued a security code number to access his bathroom. The committee also addressed the university's blue-light emergency telephone system. Seven new phones will be added this year to increase accessibility to the emergency phones from all spots on campus, Taylor said. The new phones have no handset. They have a button to call the police and a microphone and speaker to talk and listen. Within five years, every blue-light phone on campus will be upgraded to this newer model. The committee also discussed surrounding the campus by a wall, but decided that the inconvenience outweighed the safety value. Taylor said he is not ready to go to that extreme. "We don't want to isolate ourselves," he said. "Part of the value of being a part of Rice is being exposed to the surrounding community." Plans are underway to set up police workstations in Lovett College and in the new common kitchen/servery to be shared by Wiess and Hanszen Colleges. The idea is to create more "recognizable areas where students can find officers," Taylor said. Five years ago, a similar committee evaluated safety on campus after four students were abducted from the Brown College parking lot. In light of the incident, the Campus Police added eight new officer positions, assigned officers to specific colleges and started locking campus gates at night. Taylor said President Malcolm Gillis decided another committee was necessary to revisit those safety concerns and devise a series of recommended improvements to campus safety. "Rice has a history of being safe. ... There have just been a few isolated incidents," Taylor said. Will Rice College Master Dale Sawyer, chair of the standing Committee on Security that was created to continue the ad hoc committee's work, said although students feel safe at Rice, they must be more aware of their surroundings. "We have to acknowledge that we live in the fourth-largest city in the United States, and crime can touch us," Sawyer said. Sawyer said students are encouraged to come forward and discuss their own ideas regarding campus safety.
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