After a series of lab items were reported stolen from the new Biomedical and Physical Science Building last week, MSU police say they aren’t responsible for conducting employee background checks before handing out building access cards.
Instead, the responsibility rests with each department head to verify the credibility of their employees, said MSU police Inspector Bill Wardwell, who is in charge of the operations division. Police have narrowed an investigation of one theft to building employees.
Department chairpersons contacted by The State News refused to provide details about the characteristics of background checks.
Physiology chairperson William Spielman said the extent of a background check in his department depends on the person being hired. Spielman declined to comment on what types of screenings are performed.
Key cards are given to employees by MSU police after each department compiles a list of people who need access to the building. “We accept their lists and give out the cards,” said Wardwell, adding police background checks take about a week. “We hope those departments would screen who they hire. It’s not feasible for the police department to do that.”
Questions over the building’s security arose after eight 4-liter bottles of acetic acid were taken out of a locked stock room between July 1 and Sept. 10 in the Chemistry Building, which is connected to the new facility. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, a pig bacteria that causes pneumonia in young pigs was stolen from an unlocked room in the Biomedical and Physical Science Building between Sept. 12-13. Research disks and documents also were taken.
No warrants have been issued to a suspect in connection to the pig research materials theft, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said, but employees are being investigated.
Despite the security concerns, the main Chemistry Building doors were found unlocked during last Saturday’s home football game - allowing anyone inside.
At about 1:30 p.m. Saturday Montserrat Rabago-Smith, a chemistry graduate student, said the main Chemistry Building doors were open. The main building doors are to be secured every weekday and weekend after 10 p.m. with the exception of all-day security on home football game Saturdays, she said.
“In theory, you should have a key” after hours, Rabago-Smith said. “When students have class they should be able to get in, but as soon as class is over it should be closed.”
As a Chemistry Building employee, Rabago-Smith is given key access to the main Chemistry Building doors and several rooms on the floor she works on. All Biomedical and Physical Science Building employees have access cards to the building, Wardwell said.
There are several hundred people who work in the Biomedical and Physical Science Building.
A key-card system secures the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Physics and Astronomy and Physiology departments in the Biomedical and Physical Science Building. The Chemistry Building is primarily secured by a key and lock. Implementing the key-card system is an ongoing operation and is scheduled for future installation in the Chemistry Building, Wardwell said.
“The card-key system also provides a record of comings and goings,” Wardwell said.
Before installing the $500,000 high-tech security system infrastructure, Wardwell said a committee of mostly university administrators decided what areas of the building were most vulnerable.
“We did a hazard analysis of the building,” said Wardwell, who explained research areas located on every floor of the building except the first floor are the primary focus of security. “Security systems are good, but they are not the answer for everything.”
To add each department to the high-tech system, it costs more than $100,000, Wardwell said.
The key cards can be programmed to allow only certain rooms to be opened on certain days of the week. Between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. the elevators will not go to the upper floors without an access card.
The skywalks connecting the departments together are accessed by the key cards after 7 p.m., Wardwell said. But at 7:30 p.m. Monday the a key-card accessed door connecting the Chemistry Building to the Biomedical and Physical Science Building by a skywalk was not latched shut, allowing cardless passersby to enter.
If an unauthorized person tried to enter the building while it was locked, that attempted entry would be transmitted back to MSU police who monitor the system, Wardwell said.
Robert Maleczka Jr., an associate chemistry professor, said he has not had any problems with chemical thefts.
“You can go to Kroger and buy the stuff,” said Maleczka, who explained that boiling vinegar concentrates it to the acetic acid form. “Something just doesn’t add up.”
Alison Barker can be reached at barkera6@msu.edu.
