EDITOR’S NOTE: This is article contains corrections made after the print edition. In the original article, the KMOV report was incorrectly associated with the statement that Washington University dorms are the “least secure” among St. Louis universities . The report did not make this statement and it was a misinterpretation on the part of Student Life. The article also cited a statistic that there were 29 reported sexual offenses at the University in 2004-2005. This number is incorrect and the actual number is 14. Student Life regrets these errors.

Washington University campus dorm security could be at risk, suggested a recent undercover investigative report by KMOV, the channel 4 St. Louis news.

The news report, which aired on Monday evening, involved a visit to the campuses of four area universities – Washington University, the University of Missouri St. Louis, Lindenwood University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville – to examine university and student security by attempting to have an undercover producer enter the dorms.

The investigator first approached Dardick Hall, where the undercover reporter was able to gain entry into the locked building when several University students unlocked the door and allowed him inside. According to the report, the producer spent several minutes in the hall without confrontation and then left the building. However, the same students who opened the door for the producer later called the University police, who in turn confronted the reporter outside Dardick Hall.

“The dorm security was similar to what we encountered at Lindenwood and UMSL – the key access or swipe-card access system,” said Steve Chamraz, the reporter for the story. “SIUE chooses to staff its residence halls 24 hours a day. Once [Washington University] campus security was alerted to our presence, they moved in quickly and with quite a few officers. That was impressive.”

The report also cited crime data for the University from 2004 to 2005, noting 14 reported forcible sex offenses and 29 burglaries. Both figures were the highest among the four university campuses investigated; UMSL and Lindenwood reported no sex offenses, and SIUE saw five over that time span.

Director of Campus Police Don Strom suggested that the news report was, in regards to the University, somewhat misleading.

“The way the story was packaged was, to me, a little disingenuous,” he said.

Strom said that the students’ reporting of the undercover producer in Dardick Hall served as an example of University security.

“Students recognized the person was out of place and called the police. From that perspective, the system worked the way it’s supposed to.”

Strom also stressed the joint responsibility between the students and the University police for security on the campus.

“Whatever we do for safety and security on campus is a shared responsibility. It’s all of us working together,” said Strom. “In this case, shared responsibility worked.”

Associate Director of Residential Life Rob Wild added that both Residential Life services and the University police work to maintain the dorms’ security.

“Residential Life and [the University police] work together to ensure the residential halls are safe. The greatest area we work together is on campus security.”

Wild added that students should take care not to let tailgaters inside the dorms, and report suspicious persons around and in the dorms. He also asserted that the relatively high number of reported forcible sexual offenses did not necessarily correlate with security.

“You have to compare the university cultures,” said Wild, regarding the news report. “There was an implication that the number of reported sexual offenses [was high]. The reality is, most forcible sexual offenses are student-to-student and not a factor of security.”

Wild stated that the 14 reported sexual offenses from 2004 to 2005 were made by acquaintances of the victim, and that forcible sexual offenses are generally underreported. A campus environment with a ubiquitous police presence, added Strom, would not be representative of the environment that the University wishes to create.

“What the challenge is for a university, is creating an environment where people are comfortable about coming forward when such experiences occur. It’s unrealistic to expect in a campus setting [that] there are no sexual offenses,” said Strom.

The role of students in helping with security by reporting crimes and being watchful, according to Strom, should be emphasized with crimes on campus.

“Part of what we have is a trusting nature among students, and because people value that culture, there’s going to be episodes [of crime],” said Strom. “We couldn’t hire enough guards to prevent crime, nor would we. The cost to the student is not necessary for that level of security and wouldn’t prevent crimes.”

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