Two years after a pilot program to phase night receptionists out of Brody and North Neighborhoods, Residence Education and Housing Services will still not move forward with expanding the program to East and South Neighborhoods.
For the time being, the situation is in limbo, and East and South Neighborhood will keep their receptionists on duty after midnight.
“We have no current project plans to change the night receptionist model in the South and East Neighborhood,” Safety and Security Services Coordinator for REHS Natisha Foster said in an email. “Brody and North Neighborhoods will continue to utilize the centralized service center model.”
This split system originated in a pilot program in 2013 that focused resources away from the front desk and to a community policing and centralized model that allowed residents to enter the building with their ID card alone. Resident Assistant rounds were increased and additional MSU police officers were on duty in those neighborhoods.
Staffed desks were also available in the new neighborhoods to help students in need.
However, after the program’s first year there intended to be a review process to determine if it would be killed or expanded. Two years down the road there are no plans to do either.
Why exactly the split system remains is unclear, as an assessment took place at the end of its first year. Charlie Thompson-Orsua, Assistant Director of Residence Education for Brody Neighborhood and University Apartments & Village, told The State News last fall students were responding well to how security was handled and used different criteria to judge its success.
“We looked at a number of factors,” Thompson-Orsua said in a previous interview with The State News. “We looked at residence perceptions of their experience in the halls, we looked at financial impact as well.”
For the near future, those factors haven’t influenced its progress.
”We are not changing the Brody and North model as the pilot was deemed to be successful in those neighborhoods,” Foster said in an email. “We will continue to evaluate this model for the remaining neighborhoods and make determinations at the time.”
She did not comment on any specific reasons why the program will remain in limbo.
Safety concerns were brought up with the new system, since night receptionists deal with everything from dangerously drunk partiers, attempted stabbings to angry ex-boyfriends, although Foster said there was no evidence it was any less safe.
