Spring Break
EDITORIAL: Upgrading campus security
Editorial | 8/28/07
Posted online at 11:33 PM EST on 8/27/07
This year, students will be setting foot on a campus more prepared to cope with emergencies. Thankfully, our administrators have been active participants in a nationwide effort to enhance campus security after April's Virginia Tech shootings, and there may be more changes for the better on the horizon.
New sirens at several locations on campus will alert us to check our cell phones for text-messages that include security instructions, similar to those systems newly implemented at many schools including Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of New Mexico. Administrators can also now send text and voice announcements to campus phones. By keeping members of our community fully aware of emergency situations, these measures have the ability to save lives if crises ever arise here.
Although Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said the added technology costs "well over $100,000," a price can't be placed on the well-being of students, faculty and staff. The University's willingness to invest significantly in a safer campus environment is encouraging, and its response to the events at Virginia Tech has been appropriately swift.
Despite the new safety measures, another obstacle remains for a more secure campus: the policy preventing Brandeis police from carrying firearms. Last year, Mr. Collins said he couldn't recall an incident when having campus officers armed would have impacted the situation. But the Virginia Tech tragedy is precisely that incident. This page has argued before that Brandeis police need to be armed to protect both themselves and the campus community, a grievance the police themselves have expressed repeatedly.
To the administration's credit, attitudes appear to be changing. A committee met this summer to discuss the firearms policy, and Mr. Collins said last week that Virginia Tech has caused him to seriously rethink his previous position on arming officers.
Administrators have done well to re-evaluate their approach to campus safety in light of the tragedy in Virginia. The new communications technology is a positive first step in creating a safer campus environment, and if campus police are eventually armed, students will be able to breathe even easier.
New sirens at several locations on campus will alert us to check our cell phones for text-messages that include security instructions, similar to those systems newly implemented at many schools including Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of New Mexico. Administrators can also now send text and voice announcements to campus phones. By keeping members of our community fully aware of emergency situations, these measures have the ability to save lives if crises ever arise here.
Although Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said the added technology costs "well over $100,000," a price can't be placed on the well-being of students, faculty and staff. The University's willingness to invest significantly in a safer campus environment is encouraging, and its response to the events at Virginia Tech has been appropriately swift.
Despite the new safety measures, another obstacle remains for a more secure campus: the policy preventing Brandeis police from carrying firearms. Last year, Mr. Collins said he couldn't recall an incident when having campus officers armed would have impacted the situation. But the Virginia Tech tragedy is precisely that incident. This page has argued before that Brandeis police need to be armed to protect both themselves and the campus community, a grievance the police themselves have expressed repeatedly.
To the administration's credit, attitudes appear to be changing. A committee met this summer to discuss the firearms policy, and Mr. Collins said last week that Virginia Tech has caused him to seriously rethink his previous position on arming officers.
Administrators have done well to re-evaluate their approach to campus safety in light of the tragedy in Virginia. The new communications technology is a positive first step in creating a safer campus environment, and if campus police are eventually armed, students will be able to breathe even easier.
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