The Office of Residence Life at Montclair State University has made the decision to enhance campus safety with additional installments of camera audits in residence halls.
This comes with the recent renovations to Bohn Hall, where two cameras were installed in the community kitchen.
Residence Life is collaborating with University Facilities, Capstone on Campus Management, the Division of Student Development Campus Life (SDCL) leadership and in certain circumstances, Dining Services, to install more camera audits. Each campus partner works with Residence Life to access their specific needs in camera audits installation.
The camera audits, mainly located in the lobbies of residence halls, are aimed at improving student safety. The increased surveillance is strictly for investigation purposes within the University Police Department (UPD) and is used in areas where students do not have an expectation of privacy.
Jeanine Stroh, executive director of The Office of Residence Life, shares more insight on this decision.
“Providing feedback and reporting incidents and concerns immediately is most important and emphasized to all residents,” Stroh said. “The faster an issue is identified, the quicker we can provide [a] response, follow up and provide support. We want to empower residents to be active members of the community and report things in a timely manner, provide bystander response when appropriate and share their feedback so that we can put systems in place to provide a safe and secure environment.”
Though there were not any individual incidents that lead to the conclusion, ongoing evaluations such as theft, vandalism and other safety concerns has continuously played an influence on the creation of the camera audits.
According to Stroh, due to the large size and design of residence halls, the number of installations in each building comes with a high cost.
“We evaluate the cost, locations and the best use of equipment with our IT and University Facilities partners for future planning,” Stroh said.
Given the extensive amount of other budgeting priorities for both department and capital funding, cost makes it a challenge, impacting when and how much funds can be allocated for certain projects.
Oren Cohen, a sophomore music education major is a resident student. He shares his thoughts on the recent installments.
“I think that [the installments are] definitely fine,” Cohen said. “It would be safer, and I definitely think it’s beneficial [to students].”
Oren Cohen, sophomore music education major and resident. David Bien-Aime | The Montclarion
Another resident student, Melanie Pazienza who is a sophomore business administration major, shares her initial thoughts on the addition of camera audits.
“I think it’s something important security-wise, so we have eyes on what’s going on,” Pazienza said. “I don’t think it should be seen as something that’s invading privacy. It’s something that should be necessary to, again, to see what’s going on and make sure that students are safe and not doing anything they’re not supposed to be doing.”
Melanie Pazienza, sophomore business administration major and resident. David Bien-Aime | The Montclarion
The installments are ongoing, as there is no specific date for when more will be added.
