Living in the dorms requires a lot of trust.

Students share a room and sometimes a bathroom with people they barely know. They have access to each other's personal belongings, and they have hope nothing will get stolen.

Roommates aren't the only people students have to worry about. There are also non-MSU people who can slip into dorms relatively easily and try stealing from rooms.

MSU tried to take an aggressive approach toward safety and security in Emmons Hall, by installing ID card readers. In order to get into the building or individual hallways, students need to swipe their ID cards.

The point of the system, which cost $82,000, was to keep people out of the dorms who might want to commit crimes. It was first piloted in Emmons Hall, and if it worked, it would be installed in other dorms.

But several students interviewed about the system said they didn't feel more secure with the card readers. And students in Armstrong Hall, which doesn't have the system, said they feel just as safe as those in Emmons Hall did.

Even an MSU official, Residence Life Director Paul Goldblatt, said he hasn't seen any real benefit to having card-access security.

If students don't feel any safer, a university official doesn't feel they make a difference and the system is costly, then it should be an obvious indication that key-card security on the residence halls' doors isn't a good investment for the university and shouldn't be installed in other halls.

It's important for MSU to look at ways to make students safer in their dorms, but ultimately, safety is the partly the responsibility of students, too.

One reason the ID card-access system in Emmons Hall doesn't work is that students still open the door for people who don't have a card.

One student said they wouldn't open the door for someone who looked "shady," but how does someone define shady? It's hard to decide just by looking at someone if they are a student who lost their card or just a person who wants to steal.

A resident could accidentally let a "shady" person in. Hopefully people in that hallway are still wary enough to lock their doors.

Many residence halls lock the doors at midnight and have a receptionist who verifies and lets students in. Even with this, hall residents will still let people in who call their friends or bang on the doors. No matter what, people will get into a residence hall.

To stay safe, students need to remember to lock their doors, watch out for themselves and watch out for each other.

MSU, for its size and student population, is a relatively safe place. But students should be aware of the surroundings and be observant.

In the end, students have to take care of their own belongings and make sure they are respecting the safety precautions the university has installed for them.

We don't need an $82,000 key-card security system to do what common sense should take care of.