This past Thursday, a man unaffiliated with Brandeis was arrested after entering the Village A building in an inebriated state. This man gained access to a campus building and intruded a dormitory, highlighting the lack of security and safety measures that are implemented on campus grounds.

This board believes that the presence of campus authorities and police should be expanded to service the safety of the Brandeis community. We believe the University could greatly benefit from a better emergency call system, properly manned campus security stations and expanded blue light systems.

Students must be well-aware of suspect situations and their surroundings to further ensure a secure campus community. It is important to note that, in an open environment such as Brandeis, instances such as these could arise at any given moment.

Members of the community must be conscious of their decision-making and actively strive to ensure their safety-along with Brandeis authorities.

Once again, a large aspect of security management rests on the University police. In this light, we commend two similar measures taken this past weekend to address matters of university safety. Brandeis police investigated a suspect individual near the Rose Art Museum through the use of surveillance cameras and employed a crossing guard on South Street to direct traffic, preserving the well-being of students.

In order to build upon these efforts, we encourage the effective management of security throughout campus. Particularly, authorities should utilize the information booth at the entrance to campus as a means of directing and overseeing campus visitors. This location on campus, along with the entrances to the Charles River Apartments and the Village, are essential to creating a safe environment and prevent instances of trespassing.
 Furthermore, this board suggests the implementation of added foot patrols in the resident areas.

Yet, we hope that these patrols would serve a role similar to Community Advisors, not directly seeking to incite relations with students, but instead, providing essential security.

Even when Brandeis police are not present, students or staff should be able to gain easy access to the necessary authorities in dangerous situations. Therefore, we encourage the addition of a three-digit code, similar to 911, that would easily allow for students to connect in a rapid manner with police. Currently, when a student dials 911 while on campus, they are connected to the Waltham Police, which then relays the message to Brandeis Police. This is an inefficient system that can lead to key communication errors.

However, there are other security measures that could be implemented on campus, including additional installments of the blue light system. In light of the aforementioned incident, the blue light system, while sparsely distributed throughout campus, has not been used in recent years.

This board has previously alluded to the shortcomings in this system, and following this arrest, it is imperative for University authorities to revive this essential vehicle of security.
We hope that the University and students will take these measures into account, and in the future, collaborate to prevent such breaches of security from occurring. It is, in fact, crucial for the sustained well-being of our community.
*