Housing and Dining Programs Executive Director Chris Moody said he is "toying with the idea" of installing cameras in the lobbies of AU's residence halls to increase security in the dorms.
"I'm looking at cameras pointing away from the desk at the doors as a possibility," he said.
Moody said not to expect anything soon.
"Two years ago, there were lots of people who wanted us to install cameras everywhere," he said. "That's kind of died down. People aren't as interested in that, but it's something that we haven't committed to . I haven't seen any camera products that I really think will work well yet."
Moody said he looked at cameras that had counters built into them to give an accurate count of a building's occupancy at all times for risk management procedures, such as a fire alarm activation.
The best security system for dorms is similar to what urban hotels have, Public Safety Chief McNair said in an e-mail.
"The most ideal system is one in which individual doors are self locking with card swipes on each individual door," he said in the e-mail. "We could also employ numeric keypads for each door so that a person would not need to carry a card around ... However, those systems are still too expensive to install for each individual door."
Security cameras that face the entrance of the residence halls would increase dorm security more than the double barrier system would, according to Carter Gibson, the Residence Hall Association's facility committee chairman.
"Currently we have no way of actually knowing who enters our residence halls without an ID," he said in an e-mail. "That's a problem cameras would fix. Of the students I've spoken to, about half seem to be favor, and about half seem to have personal privacy issues and are not in favor of them."
Moody said he is opposed to putting cameras in places where a student's privacy can be invaded, such as the hallways, elevators or the front desk in case students are locked out of their rooms.
Alex Miner, a sophomore in Kogod, said he feels safe in the dorms, but is not opposed to the cameras.
"I think that the reason they're doing it is because they want to ensure the safety of the students," he said. "As long as it's just in the entrance way by the doors where we swipe in on, then that's fine by me."
Avi Cohen, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said she does not like the idea of security cameras in the lobbies of dorms.
"We're supposed to feel like this is our home, right?" she said. "We live here. That's what [Housing and Dining's Residence Life Director] Rick Treter told us at orientation. And I'm not going to feel very at home if they have cameras on me when I come in the door."
Public Safety has recommended installing cameras in the lobbies of residence halls on many occasions, McNair said in the e-mail.
"It is simply a matter of funding at this point," he said in the e-mail.
You can reach this staff writer at thallerman@theeagleonline.com.
