Residential Life reminds people to keep their doors locked during Safety Week. Doors get labeled with Dum Dums or Smarties to remind students that people notice when their doors are locked or unlocked.
One week each year during fall term is dedicated as Safety Week. During this week, Public Safety sends out safety tips to students and the CA’s perform door checks.
“Lots of people lock their doors but a few don’t, and we still want to look out, so that’s why we do the checks. Honestly, college kids get lazy and stop locking their doors” said Sydney Gilbert, a CA in Westerlin Residence Hall.
According to Chris Beyer, Director of Residential Life, during Safety Week the CA’s lock doors that are found unlocked and label them with Dum Dum suckers along with notes including safety tips. Rooms that are found locked receive smarties. The idea is that you are a smarty if you lock your door when you aren’t home and a Dum Dum if you don’t, according to Beyer.
“We know that it is often very convenient for people to leave the room without locking the door and frankly we don’t have a great big problem with theft on campus, but we want to keep it that way. One way to keep it that way is to get people into the habit of keeping their doors locked” said Beyer
Residential Life gets copies of all of the incident reports on campus. There is not a significant number of reports of theft in the residential halls, according to Beyer. He stresses that Residential Life is focusing on keeping people proactive.
If you’re going to leave your doors unlocked, “Do so at your own risk. We do occasionally get things that are taken. What we consider a crime of opportunity. If they see a door open and there is an IPad or Fitbit or who knows what, it’s easy to grab it and go,” said Beyer
Beyer stresses that students should keep their keys on them and lock their doors. While it is not always convenient, it is proactive in keeping everyone’s stuff safe.
“I think everyone could always use a reminder to be safe and lock their rooms. It seems the majority of students leave their doors unlocked when they are in the building walking around and only a few leave it open all the time” said Ashley Chex, a CA in Erickson Residential Hall