2008 Woodie Awards
Rollins Campus Security Is A Step Above The Rest
Megan Borkes
Issue date: 11/13/06 Section: News
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Recently, the University of Central Florida has had some distressing news start to surface: Instances of hazing in fraternities and sororities, the recent death of a cheerleader, and violence in off campus housing.
These are all very real and very disturbing concerns in collegiate life. With the instances of hateful behavior in one of our dorms here at Rollins College a few weeks ago, the question arises as to how much of this behavior goes on here at Rollins, and what kinds of safety measures the college is taking to keep students from feeling threatened.
After all, Rollins and UCF are only about 15 minutes away. What is it that is so different between the two campuses?
First and foremost, Rollins is a smaller campus overall than UCF is.
"In small communities, people tend to know each other and watch out for each other," says Donna Lee, the Dean of Student Affairs. "Sometimes, however, we feel so safe in our small community that we become a little complacent, and we do not take proactive measures to ensure the safety of our community." This is true enough.
Many students do not lock their dorm doors when they leave or when they are sleeping, and just as many students do not think twice when letting someone into a residence hall that they might not recognize. More often than not, the fact that we are such a small community here leads those living in residence halls to the assumption that if someone is asking to get in, they must know someone else in the hall. This is dangerous thinking.
"All visitors should be escorted by a Rollins member when in the residence halls," says Lee, "Any suspicious behavior should be immediately reported to Campus Security. The College will work to take any necessary action to remove the threat and put a plan in place to best ensure that the student feels safe."
Incidents do not always get reported right away, of course, because some students either do not know how to go about it, or - even more often - they may not even acknowledge the incidents.
These are all very real and very disturbing concerns in collegiate life. With the instances of hateful behavior in one of our dorms here at Rollins College a few weeks ago, the question arises as to how much of this behavior goes on here at Rollins, and what kinds of safety measures the college is taking to keep students from feeling threatened.
After all, Rollins and UCF are only about 15 minutes away. What is it that is so different between the two campuses?
First and foremost, Rollins is a smaller campus overall than UCF is.
"In small communities, people tend to know each other and watch out for each other," says Donna Lee, the Dean of Student Affairs. "Sometimes, however, we feel so safe in our small community that we become a little complacent, and we do not take proactive measures to ensure the safety of our community." This is true enough.
Many students do not lock their dorm doors when they leave or when they are sleeping, and just as many students do not think twice when letting someone into a residence hall that they might not recognize. More often than not, the fact that we are such a small community here leads those living in residence halls to the assumption that if someone is asking to get in, they must know someone else in the hall. This is dangerous thinking.
"All visitors should be escorted by a Rollins member when in the residence halls," says Lee, "Any suspicious behavior should be immediately reported to Campus Security. The College will work to take any necessary action to remove the threat and put a plan in place to best ensure that the student feels safe."
Incidents do not always get reported right away, of course, because some students either do not know how to go about it, or - even more often - they may not even acknowledge the incidents.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Ginger
posted 12/04/06 @ 5:05 PM EST
When I was a student at Rollins, date rape occurred all the time, especially on the weekends in fraternity houses, in particular. The victims were usually too embarrassed and in shock to speak up, also for fear their names and reputations would be dragged through the mud by the perpetrator(s) os such events. (Continued…)
Megan
posted 1/26/07 @ 5:08 PM EST
That's a hard issue, since, like you said, many victims are too embarrassed to speak up about it. Campus Security and Personal Counselling can only do so much, and if no one speaks up about the incident, then there's not much that can be done. (Continued…)
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