By Vanessa Mavie Hofer
Rumors have it that every single dorm room will get a keycard lock soon, because of certain incidents that have happened on campus.
Jeremy Nelson, Director of Facilities, took his time to clear up these rumors about the dorm security changes on campus. Nelson said that in the 2 years he has worked for McPherson College, there have been numerous requests about changing the dorm security to individual keycard locks. On behalf of these requests, there is an ongoing plan to eventually install those keycard locks on every dorm room. However, there has currently been no progress made, which is mainly because of the high costs that cannot be covered at the moment. Nelson explains, “The infrastructure is not in the building. We would have to change out all the hardware on the doors, there has to be a power source, and the network has to be there. So, it would be extremely expensive.” He concludes with saying, that there is a desire to get there someday, but there is not currently any plan in action.
Nevertheless, security changes have been made over the summer. A big amount of security cameras have been added all over campus in locations like dorm hallways, lobbies, kitchens and laundry rooms. These cameras have been used in incidents to identify people, or corporate stories. Nelson also mentions that they are currently looking to add more security cameras on the exterior of campus dorms, which will be a work in progress.
But most importantly, with the information that Nelson has been given, he cannot confirm any of the rumors that have been going around about instances that would require a better security system on campus. In conclusion, security on campus has increased, but we are far from having individual keycard locks on every dorm room!
