When entering the Elizabethtown College campus, students immediately feel the safety that the college provides for them. Students who come to Etown admire how seriously the campus takes its security. The College takes a number of safety measures for its students, staff, and faculty. The campus even allows and encourages its students to get involved with the safety by becoming Student Patrol Officers who escort students and faculty to their locations anytime, day or night.
Campus Security constantly works to provide the necessary services that the College needs in order to ensure its safety. Blue Light Emergency Phones are positioned all around the campus, and security cameras are also set up. These help the students so they never feel scared in any situation while on campus.
With all these precautions already in place, the campus has decided to add more security cameras to the Jays Nest and around campus. First-year Haley Ricker stated her opinion on the need of more cameras: “I think it is a good idea, because even if something were to still happen, the people monitoring the cameras will have a better chance of catching the culprit if there are more cameras up.” First-year Lauren Trevino, who just started working shifts at the Jay’s Nest, commented that “more cameras mean more security for the school.” Sophomore Ashley Nino, another employee, thinks that “having more cameras will be helpful and improve security at the Jays Nest.” Sophomore Hayley Spriggs said: “I definitely believe that adding more cameras will make our campus safer. If there is more footage then they can easily identify the faces of the people that are stealing.”
What helps to sustain security is the fact that the College is such an enclosed campus. The students always feel protected and safe whenever they step outside and never feel alone. Director of Campus Security Andrew Powell said that the reason why there are more cameras being put up around campus is so campus security can “keep a better eye out for any activity.” He mentioned that this summer cameras will be installed in public areas and in the administration and academic buildings. Mr. Powell acknowledged the fact that the Jays Nest has been experiencing some problems with theft. Students have been taking food and drinks, which in my opinion is them scamming their fellow peers that work in the Jays Nest and cheating their own parents who pay for their meal plans. Mr. Powell says that “crime-prevention is the ultimate goal of having more security cameras.”
The cameras that are up in the Jays Nest provide an extra sense of comfort to the students, so that it will limit or get rid of any crime that is committed. I believe that putting more cameras up will help to maintain the pledge of integrity that Elizabethtown College stands by. The cameras will help students keep that sense of honesty and morality. If more cameras are put up in the Jays Nest and around campus, it will definitely keep the College safer.
–Mikenna Lehane
