6A the university daily kansan
security
friday, april 2. 2004
LOCKED: Men's halls less secure than women's
CONTINUED FROM 1A
reluctant to embrace the security measures of the women's halls. In fact, some women's halls are loosening their security policies to provide a more open atmosphere like the men's halls.
Two Stephenson Hall fire escape doors were propped open during the daytime yesterday. There are a number of differences in security levels among men's and women's schooljars in halls.
"I think we're all resistant to formal, strict escort policies and lockdowns because of the nature of our community." All Scholarship Hall Council President Jen Overstreet said. "You always like to relax when you're comfortable in your living arrangement."
The thefts at Amiini this past February were the most severe burglaries in the scholarship halls since Thanksgiving 2001, when someone broke into Amiini and the adjacent women's hall, Margaret Amiini Scholarship Hall, and stole several hundred dollars worth of electronics from a number of rooms.
Jared Soares/Kansan
When Margaret Amini opened in August 2000, it brought the number of women's scholarship halls to five, equaling the five men's halls. Though the number of men's and women's halls has been the same since, the crime rates have been quite different.
The men's halls have reported 71 crimes since August 2000, while the women's halls have reported 37.
The scholarship halls are a division of the Department of Student Housing, but have no mandated security policies. Residents of each hall decide what should be done to keep unwanted visitors out. For many years, the women's halls have maintained, to different degrees, a number of strict security measures. They include 24-hour locked doors (which residents can unlock with a key-code), a front desk where a resident monitors everyone who enters and an escort policy that requires visitors to be accompanied by a resident at all times. The residents of the men's halls have no formal security measures aside from locking their front doors at night.
"It's unfortunate, but female undergrads are more security-conscious," said Ken Stoner, director of Student Housing. "It's a message that's drummed into them a little more."
Women's halls
The women's scholarship halls, Sellards, Miller, Watkins.
Douthart and Margaret Amini, are some of the most secure buildings on campus. Douthart gained a reputation within the scholarship halls as especially wary of strangers, earning the nickname "Fort Douthart."
Until February, Douthart had its doors locked 24 hours a day, with a resident on phone duty who would let in guests and a strict escort policy for those guests. It has since loosened its escort policy, allowing residents to write the names of guests who can roam unescorted on index cards that the resident on phone duty checks. The other policies remain in place.
It's difficult for non-residents to roam the hall without someone watching them, said Britt Bradley, Wichita sophomore and Douthart resident.
"If someone's wandering around in Douthart, everyone looks at them funny," Bradley said. "In my experience, in guys' halls, no one really gives you a second look."
Security is a bigger issue to women because they feel more vulnerable to attack, Bradley said, but, "theft is partially an issue, especially now that more people have laptops, CD players and other high-priced things that are small and easy to walk out with," she added.
Douthart's security comes with a price. About a month ago, the Douthart residents decided they didn't like the "Fort Douthart" image and the way the strict escort policy made their guests feel.
Douthart has reported six crimes in the last four years: one burglary, four thefts and one act of vandalism. Bradley said she had only heard of property being stolen during breaks when maintenance people were coming and going and the outer doors were left unlocked at times.
"A lot of people were saying their friends didn't feel welcome, like they felt like we were going to jump down their throats as soon as they walked in," Bradley said. "That's all just image. We're really very welcoming; we want people to come over."
With Douthart loosening its escort policy, the hall with the strictest security may now be Sellards. The front door to Sellards is unlocked during the day, but
there's always a resident on phone duty watching the door. Sellards still adheres to an escort policy for all guests. It is the only scholarship hall that hasn't reported a crime in the past four years.
Miller is one of the more relaxed women's halls, with no escort policy. Its residents still have phone duty shifts each week when they keep watch at the door, except when it's locked. Miller has reported fewer crimes than all the men's halls in the last four years.
Miller residents talk about security at nearly every house meeting, and feel safe without an escort policy, said Cheri Whitees, Durant, Okla., junior.
"Even with us being more relaxed, we still have phone duty." Whiteside said. "It's a drastic jump from us to guys' halls."
The robberies at Amini this year spurred Khadavi, the hall president, to close the gap in security between his hall and the women's halls. He went to a 24-hour lockdown and an escort policy that required residents to let their guests in and accompany them at all times. Then he asked his residents to comment on the new system.
Men's halls
"A lot of them didn't like it," Khadav said.
Without anyone on phone duty, the burden of answering the door fell more heavily on a small group of residents living on the first floor.
"We found out that the only way we could have a functional escort policy was with a front desk," Khadavi said. "That wouldn't work; the guys weren't willing to do it."
After three weeks, the policies were voted down in a hall meeting and residents decided to have no formal guest policy. Instead, they plan to raise their awareness of strangers in the hall and question people they don't recognize.
Joe Alfaro, Springdale, Ark., sophomore, was one of the Amiini residents whose room was burglarized on Feb. 7. His PlayStation, controllers and five games were stolen. He agreed with the decision to scrap the escort policy.
"We had a really loose policy before and it had never really
been that big a deal," Alfaro said. "We didn't want it to be a prison like Douthart."
In Douthart, if the person scheduled for phone duty is not in the designated room, then this message can be flipped to the location where the person can be found. Britt Bradley, Wichita sophomore and Douthart Hall resident, said it was nice not to have to sit in the room for the entire phone duty.
Alfaro said he thought the heightened awareness would prevent similar incidents, but he and Khadavi said they were taking the extra precaution of locking their rooms.
Abby Tillery/Kansan
Stoner, the director of Student Housing, said locking room doors was something all the scholarship hall residents should have been doing even before the Amini thefts, but that he understood why some didn't. The scholarship halls have a family feeling and most residents think it's like home, Stoner said.
"The message we're trying to get through is that at home Mom and Dad took care of the front door, but the front door is now the door to your room, not the front door of the hall." Stoner said.
Stoner thinks all the halls should have escort policies, but only if residents agree on the policies.
"It's my experience that the scholarship halls are pretty independent and that they have some resistance to edicts or people otherwise telling them what to do," Stoner said.
Mike Mazzozco, a Chicago sophomore who lives in Stephenson, said residents would eventually accept an escort policy and phone duty if they were told to.
"People would probably be pissed at first, but if you've got to do it, you've got to do it and it's for everyone's safety," Mazzocco said.
Though all the men's halls have been burglarized in the past four years, none of them has decided to permanently implement any security policies. One reason is that many of the burglaries involved communal property rather than the property of residents. Pearson, Grace Pearson and Battenfeld have all had electronics stolen from their recreation rooms in the past four years, and food has been stolen from the pantries of all the men's halls. In 1996 someone entered the unlocked Amini kitchen and stole a deli turkey breast, 10 pounds of ground beef and 24 frozen burritos.
Because personal property is rarely stolen and communal property is replaced by the Department of Student Housing, the residents of the men's halls haven't seen the need to upgrade security. Matt Unger, St. Louis senior and president of Pearson Hall, said the department would take action if theft became too much of a problem.
"If it is more severe than in the past by Housing's opinion, then, yeah, there'll be changes," Unger said. "It's their property and they have the final word."
Although what happened at Amiini this year was more high-profile than most scholarship hall burglaries, Stoner and KU Public Safety official Lt. Schuyler Bailey say they aren't worried that crime is getting worse. Overall the number of crimes reported in the scholarship halls has gone from 31 in 2000 and 45 in 2001 to 12 in 2002 and 20 in 2003.
The Amini robbery might not have much of a lasting legacy outside of the hall's current residents. Khadavi said his residents were wary, but the other men's halls were probably still trusting.
"It's definitely harder to steal something from Amiini right now," Khadavi said. "Unfortunately that's because after an incident happens it's unlikely to happen again at that hall for a while because the residents are more aware. The other halls will have to learn vicariously from us, but I think it probably won't happen."
Kansan Staff Writer Andy Marso is a resident of Pearson Scholarship Hall. Edited by Kevin Flaherty
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