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Wyatt Mack

Composition IV

Mr. Rudebusch

8 January 2018

College Security: Protecting the Next Generation

Everyone likes to feel comfortable and safe when they head off to college; however, that

has been hard for many. College security has become a major issue the last 20 years and

continues to have troubles. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2014

there was over 27,000 criminal incidents on college campuses, with over half being burglaries. It

is very easy for people to access college buildings, because most buildings are always open for

students to use. Whether a criminal steals a students key card for a building or dorm or just walks

onto campus without being checked because of a lack of security. Lack of security isn’t the only

problem. Alcohol and drugs also play a role in students’ safety. Students are making other

students drink and do drugs and are putting their health in danger. Some teenagers in high school

believe drinking is bad and they don’t want anything to do with it; although, they get to college

and just want to fit in. Colleges may say that their campuses are safe and there isn’t anything to

worry about. However, I believe colleges need to staff more security guards and upgrade their

security equipment in order to keep the students safe.

Hate Crimes have been an issue in the United States for a very long time, but it’s even

bigger on college campuses. In order to ensure lower crime rates, universities need to staff more

police officers to keep the students and the faculty safe. Hate crimes vary from racial issues to

prejudice issues, and even sexual assault. According to the NCES, a program that gives statistics
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about education, there were 791 hate crimes reported in 2012 on college campuses, which is

more than two a day. If there are enough active police officers on a campus, they should be able

to limit or stop these hate crimes from happening. Most hate crimes start over social media or

through letters, when students are first threatened. If the victim or group doesn’t stop what they

are doing or trying to prove, then these criminals involve violence to prove their point.

According to US News, California State University student body president, Joseph Igbineweka,

was stabbed a few years ago because people disagreed with the things he did. Igbineweka had

received racial slurs from students and others that didn’t like him. The criminals knew he was

ignoring this and knew it didn’t bother him so they stabbed him. He was stabbed four times in

the chest, arm, neck, and stomach. The reason behind this hate was the color of his skin and the

things he was doing or saying. Although, some colleges might argue that hate crime hasn’t been

a big issue for them in the past couple years. I understand that there are quite a few colleges that

have little to no hate crimes, but does that mean other colleges shouldn't have to worry about it?

While it is true that most small private colleges have almost no crime at all, it does not

necessarily mean that bigger colleges follow that same path. The bigger the population on a

campus, the higher the chances are for a hate crime to happen. Although that doesn’t mean larger

colleges are filled with crime. To give a clear point, Safewise states that the so called “safest

college campus” is Durham University and it has a population of 18,000 students. The college

that has the most crime reported and is considered the most unsafe college campus is UCLA. A

article from Business Insider says, UCLA has an average of about 950 crimes reported on

campus each year, and their student enrollment is around 44,000. Therefore the safest and

unsafest colleges are both considered “huge” universities. I’m not saying the smaller the college

the less crime there will be, but when you put thousands and thousands of students together you
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have no idea what to expect. In summary, the safety of your university depends on how many

police officers are staffed and if there are enough security resources for the students to access.

College buildings can easily be accessed even if students don’t have a key card to get in.

There are many buildings that have multiple classrooms/offices in them, so many students are

finding ways to access these without a card. The doors on those buildings are locked after hours

and at night time, but during the day anyone can walk straight through them. I emailed to ask an

Operations Manager, Jeff Holm, from South Dakota State University what his thoughts were on

this issue. Holm wrote, “On a daily basis, one of the challenges for us is keeping the Frost Arena

Gym and track secure. Our building is open because we have classrooms, and we don’t have

lockable doors that lead to the gym or track. So when the building is open, really anyone has

access to the gym and track. We post signs and check the areas often, but it’s still a challenge.” I

job shadowed Holm, and realized this was a very serious problem because you could have

random strangers walking into buildings when they aren’t supposed to be. Another issue Holm

talked about was propping doors open for others. When a student would leave a building, they

would put an object such as a rock in the door so their friends could access it later on in the day.

Also, when someone leaves a building there will be others waiting outside to get in. The students

don’t ask the others why they don’t have a keycard; they just let the others in. South Dakota

State University has classrooms inside their basketball/volleyball athletic centers, so the students

could easily get onto the playing court. Holm talked about how he and his staff would love to

have ways to keep the buildings locked while still allowing most of the students with access to

them. Almost all colleges require a key card to get into buildings. In order to keep the buildings

as they safe as they can be, it would be a very good idea for all colleges to put a newer door

security lock in to confirm the safety of their students. Of course, many will disagree on the
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grounds that it is going to affect the students from getting into certain buildings for their classes.

But if the students have their student ID and they are at the right building they will be able to get

into the only buildings they need, so why do they need access to random facilities? Colleges

provide a various amount of resources and facilities for students to access, so there is no point of

them being able to get into other random buildings. With upgraded card accessed doors and

limiting the hours the buildings are open; it will be much harder for students to get into and let

others in.

Along with hate crimes, there are many other types of crimes that are being committed

on campuses. Rape and sexual assault have become a very serious problem on college campuses.

Many colleges have panic buttons throughout the campus that instantly bring police officers to

your location, but how would you press a button if you were in your dorm room and had no one

near? Students are sometimes too scared to tell police officers or to get help. Although if you

have tons and tons of police officers, then it will give the students more help when they need it.

You could have some officers patrolling outside of the dorms, some driving around campus,

some inside buildings, and the rest inside the dorms walking up and down the halls. According to

Yes Magazine, A college in Missoula, Montana, known as the rape capital, has suffered the most

rape/sexual assault reports, which was all the way up to 350 incidents in the past couple years.

The college went through several investigations because of all this violence and sexual assault.

Although, they aren’t the only college that has multiple rape reports or crimes. It is a challenge

for universities to keep the rape rate low, especially when they have thousands and thousands of

students. According to the Journal of American College Health, 11% of women experience

rape while in college. The Journal ran this experiment from over 1,400 universities with some

being public and some being private. They found public universities with higher student
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enrollment, greater number of male athletes and fraternity men, and higher alcohol use to be the

colleges with the most reported rapes. Yet some parents may challenge this view by insisting

there are already “rape prevention programs” and they aren’t helping. These programs will help

students decision making, and they will know what to do when they feel in danger. I feel as if

these programs won’t completely stop victims from getting sexually assaulted, but will help them

make smarter choices when it comes to being alone. According to Boston College, when they put

in alcohol/drug prevention classes the intoxication rate was reduced by 46% within 6 weeks. The

biggest thing campus police and staff can do is staff more police officers and building security

guards in order for the students to feel more safe and have more protection when they walk from

point A to point B.

A big problem at college events is the fact that college students are sneaking alcohol in

while most of them are underage. There is a large number of colleges that do not sell alcohol at

their sporting events. This doesn’t stop the students from trying to drink at games. Some students

try to sneak alcohol in through their pockets or hidden in their socks, but most of the time it is

noticed by security guards and thrown away. Although, there are some students and even older

fans that think of creative ways to sneak their alcohol into sports games, mostly football. To give

a clear example, a female snuck a vodka bottle in a sporting event by putting it inside a wrapped

sub. Alcohol isn’t the only thing college athletic programs should be worried about. Sneaking

weapons into a game that doesn’t have metal detectors or pat down checks could be very easy for

some special criminals. Metal detectors are very important when dealing with large number of

people coming into a game, especially if it’s a popular college team. The head of security at

Boise State, Jon Uda, stated, “The legislation definitely had a bearon on tweaking our campus

security program, especially at those large venues.” Uda is saying that there are many policies
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they have to follow while putting in this new security equipment, and procedures you have to

follow in order for everything to be done legally and safe. Many small colleges have little to

none when dealing with security checks before entering a athletic event. Smaller colleges don’t

have near as much money as bigger colleges do to spend on athletic events and facilities so the

security isn’t as big of a deal. As stated by Sports USA Today, a bigger D1 college like Texas A

& M makes a revenue each year of around $194 million compared to a smaller D1 college like

South Dakota State that makes around $17 million. Texas A & M has a lot more money to spend

on different programs and events. South Dakota State University is limited to a small budget

when it deals with security checks while entering an event. Of course, some may argue that

smaller colleges don’t have many fans that come to the game and don’t need high tech security

checks before entering. What if someone doesn’t like the college or is very intoxicated and

brings a weapon to one of those games and commits a deadly scene? I believe every college, no

matter the size, needs to have enough security and police officers to detect any crime that may

occur.

Alcohol and drug abuse has become a very difficult thing for college students. As

reported by Drug Rehab, students try alcohol and drugs for the first time while they are at

college. Kelli Weir, repository writer for the CantonRep, recovered evidence and stated that

Stark College had over 89 drug abuse incidents in 2016 alone. Even though there was 89

incidents reported, there was still many many more than people didn’t hear about. 47% of

college students have tried weed while in college or are still addicted to it. Although weed

doesn’t affect people as much as cocaine and meth does, it is still very awful and affects many

students. Weir also stated that Cocaine has been tried by almost 3% of all full- time college
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students, and 10% have tried OTC drugs. It’s not always the students fault for getting addicted,

its their peers.

Students just want to fit in and make friends, so they change everything they believe in or

like to do just so they look cool. Before the student knows it, they are addicted and can’t stop.

According to Josephine Palmeri, child Psychologist that specializes in mental disorders, stated,

“By modeling these behaviors to their peers, college students are viewing alcohol use as a

positive and socially acceptable experience. However, what college students fail to take into

consideration are the negative consequences that are related to alcohol use, especially within a

peer group context.” Psychologists see this occuring in college students all the time. They view

these drugs and alcohol as a normal thing done by people, and don’t try to stop and think about

the harmful things. Of course, many parents disagree on the grounds that its not the students fault

they are addicted, it’s the colleges fault for not helping the students out. While it is true that

colleges should have enough classes and programs to prevent students from becoming addicted;

it is the student's choice whether or not they want to go and get help. One of the worst things

about drugs on campus is the students are using them to get their work done when they are tired

or have a lot to do. Students are getting drugs from other classmates in the middle of class and

they aren’t even 100% sure what they are taking. The side effects of these drugs have crazy

effects, and the students immediately regret what they just did. Alicia Rivera, student from

Syracuse University, recalled, “I was sweating bullets, my hands were shaking, my heart was

beating so fast. There was a point where I was really worried that the feeling wasn’t going to

end.” At first these students think these drugs are going to be beneficial and help them with their

finals or whatever work they are doing, until they get addicted to get sick. According to the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, a cabinet-level department protecting our health,
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estimated 5% of students aged 18-25 have illegally used prescription drugs like Adderall and

Ritalin. Adderall and Ritalin help you stay focused and gives you the right amount of energy,

which is why students try to get their hands on them. When it comes to taking finals and doing

stressful college work, students find different ways to make them feel relaxed and not become so

hot headed. Colleges should be setting up classes and mandatory events to teach their students

different ways to relieve their stress in a safe and legal manner.

The problem of security and drugs/alcohol on college campuses can be brought down and

eliminated. It will take a long time to stop, but it can be done. The first step for colleges is

getting the money to staff more security guards/police officers and the money for new security

equipment. Having mandatory classes that help students stay away from these harmful things

would be a great start, too. I believe in order for colleges to be safer and for the students to feel

comfortable they need to be funded by the state or government with large amounts of money.

This crime and drug abuse is putting a bad reputation on colleges and may be the resulting factor

when students pick their college.

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