Despite reports of crime in residence halls, Diana Dade feels safe in her Phillips Hall room.
“I feel safe for the most part, but I take precautions,” the MSU special education junior said. “Whenever I’m alone in my room sleeping I lock the door.”
A weekend assault in a University of Michigan residence hall room prompted U-M officials to e-mail 9,400 hall residents, reminding them of hall safety measures, such as locking doors and not propping side doors. U-M housing officials are continuing to review housing safety.
A U-M female student was in her East Quad room when two males entered. One restrained the student while the other brandished a small handgun. The student was not injured, but police are continuing the investigation.
MSU police Capt. Ken Hall said students might be becoming too comfortable with their safety in MSU residence halls as well.
“It’s a safe environment, but it’s not utopia,” he said. “Students will leave their doors unlocked and then they become victimized.”
The weekend incident was U-M’s 56th report of forced entry burglary in a residence hall since September, U-M police officials said. MSU had 47 forced entry burglaries and 78 no-force burglaries in 2000.
Although the numbers are not in for 2001, Hall said MSU’s campus crime has been decreasing since the Department of Police and Public Safety began community policing in 1987.
“Community policing officers do presentations in the halls, telling students first and foremost common sense (ways to maximize safety),” he said. “We’ve had an overall 70 percent reduction in our crime rate.”
Hall said there haven’t been any recent cases of an assault with a handgun at MSU, and the department is strict about weapon possession in residence halls.
To prevent crime, U-M locks all secondary doors to residence halls 24 hours a day and has a housing security force that patrols the halls during the day. After 9 p.m. students are required to use a student ID to gain access to the halls.
MSU’s residence halls require a student ID for entrance after midnight.
“The home invasion was pretty unnerving,” said Alan Levy, U-M director of Housing Public Affairs. “So we thought it was a good time to remind students of ways to maximize their safety.
“It’s a constant re-education. What is positive is most of our residents feel safe in our halls, the problem is that sometimes you can decide because you feel safe it’s not important to carry out safety measures.”
Levy said there has been an increase in U-M’s campus crime.
“There’s been an increase in the boldness of the perpetrators,” said Diane Brown, U-M police spokeswoman. “They don’t seem to care if people see them.
“We’ve found that there are multiple people perpetrating multiple crimes. They’ve gotten away with things and are coming back and doing more.”
Nicole McMahan, an MSU animal science junior, said people propping open the doors is a problem in MSU’s residence halls. Last year people would ask her to open the door for them, she said.
“I don’t like the door being propped open,” she said. “But I think campus does a good job telling people not to prop open the door.”
Staff writer Chad Previch contributed to this report.
