Editor’s note: The student who was the victim of the harassment in Bancroft Hall is a member of The Johnsonian. The student gave permission for their story to be mentioned in this article. All information pertaining to the assault comes from a police blotter, not from a separate interview with the student.
In light of recent on-campus assaults committed by people not affiliated with the university, university officials and campus police are further evaluating possible ways to increase campus safety. One such possibility is the installation of ID swipe machines at the entrances of more campus buildings.
There are already a number of campus buildings that require the swipe of a student, staff or faculty ID to enter, such as residence halls, Owens Hall (only during non-business hours) and Dacus Library.
Many older campus buildings such as Bancroft Hall do not have a card swipe machine at the entrances.
Bancroft Hall is where a recent on-campus assault was committed by a person entering campus despite not being affiliated with the university.
On Friday, Feb. 18, “reporting Officers Sgt. Reid and Officer Watson responded to Bancroft Hall in reference to a suspicious person harassing a student,” according to a police blotter.
The student told the officers that the trespasser first made comments to them that made them uncomfortable, so they got up and left. When the student returned to the area to use the restroom, they were cornered by the trespasser at the door of the restroom and they were then verbally assaulted by the trespasser.
After talking with the student, the officers informed the trespasser that if he were to be caught on campus again, then he would be arrested.
In this particular case, requiring the swipe of a Winthrop ID at the entrances of Bancroft Hall, could have potentially prevented the assault, however, despite Phelps Hall being one of the campus buildings that does currently require the swipe of a Winthrop ID to enter, a sexual assault of a student was still committed by a non-Winthrop affiliate on Nov. 16, 2021. More information on this assault is available at mytjnow.com.
“I definitely feel like more if not all doors should require ID access for safety reasons, besides DiGs which is a public area,” said music major Trey Binnom. “No random people should be able to get into any building during the day while most of the doors are unlocked. There have been a bunch of security problems too, specifically where I work as an RA.”
Whether installing card swipe access machines at each door is feasible is still being evaluated by university officials.
“The Winthrop University Police Department, Facilities Management, and Information Technology have and are looking at adding card readers to various exterior doors for each building,” assistant chief of police Charles Yearta said. “Winthrop University is always looking at increasing safety on campus and exterior card readers are definitely a part of the solution. However, there are several obstacles that must first be overcome. These include, allocating fiscal resources, reviewing the already available infrastructure, and various network considerations.
“Each building is unique regarding the listed obstacles and unfortunately there is not a single solution that would work universally. However, we are continuing to examine the issue and make progress as the obstacles can be overcome.”
Installing card readers can be pricey, which is a major reason the university has yet to install them.
“I don’t have the information with me, but the cost varies greatly with a building’s existing equipment. I would estimate that converting a door to card access would cost somewhere between $5,000 and $7,000 if the building already has a card access system. In other words, that is the cost if the building already has other card readers. For a building without any card readers, the cost is much higher,” said Patrice Bruneau, assistant vice president for Computing and Information Technology.
Some students desire for there to be even more safety precautions implemented outside of installing card readers at more building entrances.
“It’d be nice if all buildings had cameras in them,” said Susana Atuncar-Castillo, senior
international business and Spanish major.
“Anything to make sure students are safe, I feel like that’s what we should do. Because I mean, we are paying our money and I feel like that’s just kind of how it should go anyways,” said Jaquarius K. Norman, chair of the campus safety committee. “I do think having the access card would increase safety, but then again, I kind of worry about how many people are gonna actually be responsible and not let people in and do things like that.
“I mean, we are always gonna have that risk, because nothing’s perfect or whatever, but I think overall, it’ll kind of give students more of a sense of safety than what we have now.”
There is no action as of now to move forward with the installation of card swipe machines at each campus building entrance, due to their expense and lack of flexibility with being installed on older buildings.
“I would also mention that if any student or faculty/staff feels uneasy about another individual on our campus, they should immediately contact the Winthrop University Police Department and advise of the situation. Officers would then be dispatched to the location accordingly so that the individual can be identified and the appropriate action taken,” Yearta said.
