In light of burglaries, ensuring students’ safety on the Hill must be a priority

This Halloween, students might not even need to leave their rooms to get a good scare.

With multiple burglaries in the dorms in October alone, the Hill is quickly becoming a house of terrors.

From Oct. 8 to Oct. 22, three hot prowl burglaries occurred across residences on the Hill. In all three incidents, students were in their dorms when unknown suspects entered and stole their belongings. Two of the burglaries were reported to have happened during the day, before 10:30 a.m., while one was reported to have occurred between midnight and 10:30 a.m.

Clearly, UCLA’s current safety measures aren’t doing enough if burglars can enter students’ rooms while the students are present.

While unknown guests are expected in large residential halls on a campus open to the public, UCLA needs to afford the same safety measures to all of its students, regardless of their living situations. In addition to increasing safety measures around dorms, UCLA needs to inform students by warning them to be vigilant and take precautions to lower their risk of being burglarized.

Because when strangers are breaking into students’ dorms on a weekly basis, vigilance seems to be the last thing on UCLA’s mind.

Measures such as access control into a building only exist in some residence halls – and that’s exactly what left students unprotected in Rieber Vista, Hitch Suites and Hedrick Summit. Not only that, the keycard-restricted doors are flimsy at best – especially when students commonly let people they don’t know into buildings.

In dorms with communal bathrooms, access control workers monitor who enters the residence halls from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. every night, ensuring that only residents and their guests are allowed to enter the dorm rooms. All dorms have keycard-restricted access, and some dorms require a keycard to enter the elevator as well.

But only eight out of 14 dorms have the temporary safeguard of access control, and come daytime, they’re fair game.

If UCLA is going to take pride in the safety of the Hill, the least they can do is inform students of what puts them at risk.

Unfortunately, the university has not taken much action to increase security in response to these burglaries. After the robberies, the only information students received were brief crime alerts via email, with no other follow-ups or substantive changes.

Irene Heo, a second-year history student, lives in one of the unmonitored residences and said she wishes UCLA would implement some form of watch system for these areas.

“I’m dumbfounded that happened because I hear about students stealing Tide Pods in the laundry room,” Heo said. “But I never really hear about UCLA students being robbed on the Hill, and UCLA prides itself on the safety of its students living on the Hill.”

For many students like Heo, there are ways around forgetting one’s BruinCard – like sliding through one’s open first-floor window.

“It’s always a good thing to remind people to make sure they know who’s coming in doors behind them, not to prop doors open for friends or out of convenience,” said UCPD Lt. Kevin Kilgore. “And to not be afraid to report that information if they believe someone has entered a building that does not have a Bruin ID or is not an active student.”

Too bad students don’t seem to know this.

UCLA needs to be taking proper measures to ensure students take precautions and keep themselves and their dorms safe. Students should be educated on dorm safety starting at orientation, but also reminded throughout the year by their resident assistants.

And at the very least, UCLA could implement a few small changes to its security protocols – whether that be increased security presence around the dorms that don’t have access control, or visible security cameras to serve as a crime deterrent.

However, security measures won’t be as effective if students are letting anyone and everyone in during the day.

Fourth-year cognitive science student Priyana Patel said she has often seen students let strangers in.

“I know when I used to live on the Hill there were a few times that homeless people would take advantage of the fact that students were opening the door with an access card, and they would go in,” Patel said.

Students in all dorms should have closely monitored entrances and security cameras to deter burglars from even entering – much less stealing their belongings during an afternoon nap.

In other words, having a communal bathroom should not be a determining factor in whether or not students get security.

And if the Hill, which markets its foolproof security, can be burglarized three times in one month, then students living in the university apartments have even more to worry about.

“I live close to the Hill on Gayley (Avenue), so I feel like it’s definitely something that could happen at my apartment as well,” Patel said.

Although even the highest security measures cannot make a campus foolproof from crime, UCLA is arguably on the higher end of the safety standard. With UCPD, the Security Camera Systems across campus, an escort service that can walk with students anywhere on campus, and access control and keypads for dorms, the university is clearly able to provide such safety measures.

But for those students that still slip through the cracks, it would be nice to know UCLA was, at the very least, working to improve their safety.

Because as of late, it doesn’t seem that way.

If UCLA wants to maintain its reputation as a safe place for students to live and get an education, they must work to improve their security measures.

Otherwise, students will be left to fend for themselves this Halloween.