Judicial Affairs
Housing Security Research
23 March, 2013
The Importance of Security in the Resident Halls In the modern society, everyone goes to college to finish their bachelor degree, or higher degree. Almost all of student choose living in the resident halls for the first year of the college. However, some students don’t like to follow the rules of the resident halls, because they don’t think the rules in the resident halls are really important for them. Why the dorm’s rules are important for the residents? This is the problems in people’s mind. Here are two instances to tell you how important of following the rules in the resident halls. “On April 12, 1987, in Williams Hall of Wesley College, Dover, Delaware, and on April 28, 1987, in Frazer Dormitory of Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, fires occurred that killed one student and injured nineteen. While the fires differ, they have several important aspects in common. Smoke bombs caused the Wesley College, Delaware fire in which an 18-year-old student died and four students were injured, one critically. Incidents involving smoke bombs had occurred before, and students apparently thought the smoke this time “was just another smoke bomb.” As a result the fire department was not immediately notified. There had been frequent false alarms, and students considered them annoying. The fire alarm in the dormitory did not operate on the day of the tragic fire, apparently because the fire alarm bell had been stolen from the first-floor hallway after a false alarm the previous day.” (1 Daniel J. Carpenter, Jr.) This is the real cause in the college dorm because of the fire incident. Some student just considered the fire alarm was like before. They might think that fire alarm was not serious as school said. Some student still worked on their homework and watched the video. They didn’t really think that was so dangerous for them. In this condition, people who living the resident halls should run away from the resident halls and stand outside of the building when they listen the fire alarms. You shouldn’t consider that fire alarm is fire drill or not. On the other hand, you shouldn’t take the elevator in the fire incident. While you running away in the building, if the smoke is so strong, you should use the towel which is soaked by water to cover your mouth and nose to keep the smoke away. Although it’s just a tip for you, you might get saved using this little tip during you running away. This is the importance of security in the resident halls. If you can keep this the rules when you live in the resident hall, you won’t make any incidents in the resident halls. You can save your life and others’. “A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 5 for a Milwaukee man charged with using a resident assistant’s key card and using it to steal packages from University of Whitewater dormitories. Jelani H. Spencer, 19, was charged Dec. 12 in Walworth County Circuit Court with four counts of burglary of a room, seven counts of misdemeanor theft and possession of marijuana. According to the criminal complaint: After four reports of packages delivered to Clem and Bigelow halls on the UW-Whitewater campus being stolen between Sept. 28 and Oct. 18, police spoke to Spencer, who said he found an RA’s key card and used it to open the front desk areas of the dormitories. Spencer admitted taking four or five packages. Packages reported taken without consent contained shampoo, money, food, a cell phone case, and a computer case. The access report for the RA’s key card showed it was used Sept. 28 and 20 and Oct. 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Bigelow Hall and Oct. 15 and 17 at Clem Hall.” People should pay attention for this case of stealing in the resident hall, because it’s really closed to students who living in the resident hall on campus. If the staff in the front desk who doesn’t check the ID with you, more and more cases will happen in the resident