Spring Break
Dorm Security
Christina Hall/Crime on Campus
Issue date: 12/4/01 Section: News
It's a Friday night in October on the campus of the University of Connecticut. A group of six college students is congregated outside North Campus dorm, smoking, laughing and telling stories. Nearby, an entrance door that should be locked is propped open with a floor mat.
As it turns out, propped doors are common at UConn. Journalism students found flagrant lapses in security during a systematic check of dormitories over three weekends this fall. During the safety audit across campus, they saw propped and unlocked doors, failing locks on dorm rooms, missing or defective call boxes, and students allowing strangers in without questioning.
Leaving doors propped open can be dangerous, even fatal, said Howard Clery, executive director of Security on Campus, Inc. Clery's sister, Jeanne, a college student, was raped and killed by a fellow student who entered her dorm at Lehigh University through a propped door in 1986.
"Lehigh knew about the propped door problem, but didn't do anything about it," Clery said.
A survey of 690 undergraduate students at UConn, conducted by journalism students for this series on crime, found that more than half of dorm residents said they have left a door propped open and nearly nine out of 10 students have seen someone else do it. Half of students who had seen doors propped open knew of cases where strangers had entered the building. Of those, one in five knew of a crime that resulted because a door was not locked.
The security audit, conducted over nine nights this fall, revealed that North Campus had the worst security, while the Graduate Dorms were the most secure. At the Graduate Dorms, just one unlocked door was found, while inner doors, which lead to residences, were always locked.
In contrast, an average of 13 doors, or 37 percent of the entrances, were unlocked or propped open at North Campus over the course of the audit. On one September night, access could be gained through propped or unlocked doors to all 12 residence halls at North, even though the doors were all supposed to be locked.
As it turns out, propped doors are common at UConn. Journalism students found flagrant lapses in security during a systematic check of dormitories over three weekends this fall. During the safety audit across campus, they saw propped and unlocked doors, failing locks on dorm rooms, missing or defective call boxes, and students allowing strangers in without questioning.
Leaving doors propped open can be dangerous, even fatal, said Howard Clery, executive director of Security on Campus, Inc. Clery's sister, Jeanne, a college student, was raped and killed by a fellow student who entered her dorm at Lehigh University through a propped door in 1986.
"Lehigh knew about the propped door problem, but didn't do anything about it," Clery said.
A survey of 690 undergraduate students at UConn, conducted by journalism students for this series on crime, found that more than half of dorm residents said they have left a door propped open and nearly nine out of 10 students have seen someone else do it. Half of students who had seen doors propped open knew of cases where strangers had entered the building. Of those, one in five knew of a crime that resulted because a door was not locked.
The security audit, conducted over nine nights this fall, revealed that North Campus had the worst security, while the Graduate Dorms were the most secure. At the Graduate Dorms, just one unlocked door was found, while inner doors, which lead to residences, were always locked.
In contrast, an average of 13 doors, or 37 percent of the entrances, were unlocked or propped open at North Campus over the course of the audit. On one September night, access could be gained through propped or unlocked doors to all 12 residence halls at North, even though the doors were all supposed to be locked.