Secure the Forest

During my years here as a Drew student there is definitely one thing that this school lacks, and that is proper security. Drew is not the only college that lacks this security though; my boyfriend’s school in Schenectady, NY is an open campus, with minimal security as well.

The security here at Drew sucks. There are no cameras anywhere on campus (except for the bookstore and snack bar)—which my boyfriend’s college does have—and public safety is on a whole different planet. Last year kids, who apparently weren’t enrolled as students here at Drew, came onto campus Halloween weekend and vandalized a number of cars, specifically in the suites parking lot. There was obviously no way of administrators finding out who did this without someone turning people in, which obviously didn’t happen. There was a ton of controversy going around the school as to whether our security was the cause of the problem, and it definitely was. The only time that you absolutely have to go through the main gate is past 8:00pm. This leaves free rein for ANYBODY to come onto campus through our 3 other entrances—the Glenwild gate and the two other entrances right off of Main Street. And oh I forgot to mention that when you go through the main gate past 8:00pm, as long as you have a Drew parking pass you can come onto campus with just about anyone in your car without them being IDed to see if they are Drew students as well. Really good security we have here at Drew. Desk attendants are apparently here to help secure the residence halls too, but they don’t care who you bring in as long as they are a registered guest under your name. If you’re a student you just flash your ID card and you can get in without any trouble, and most of the time you don’t have to because the RA’s on duty don’t want to be bothered with another stupid rule they need to enforce and even follow.

Now getting back to the public safety officers, they don’t give a crap about who you are and why you are on campus, but once you are caught drinking and you don’t go here it’s a completely different story. They do not enforce any type of security for the students here at Drew, and most of the time they are too busy riding around in their cars talking to students because they want to be “friends” with us. The only reason why students would want to be your friend’s public safety is so they will get out of trouble if they are ever caught in a situation that would call for them to be written up.

So the solutions to the lack of security at Drew are pretty easy. The tuition gets raised to an even ridiculously more expensive number (money doesn't grow on trees Drew University!) than it already is and administration takes the time to install a camera system around campus, or we just keep things how they are. The downside to keeping things how they are is that sexual predators, people with guns, and so on can get onto campus during the day without being reprimanded by any type of security. Putting in cameras would be very expensive to do but some people may opt for it. I personally don’t care too much because I’m graduating this year and I’ve been fine for the past 3 years.