december 2009
features
the stentorian | ncssm
Follow Security Through The Ages At NCSSM
By Kirby Varnadoe-Russ
If
The purpose of this article
was originally to give the in
side seoop on all of the secu
rity breaches that have ever
happened at NCSSM. Surpris
ingly, there have hardly been
any, even at a school that is so
open towards its surroundings.
One would think that without
a fence and with a lot of out
side access, NCSSM would be
unsafe.
“We don’t want people to
think that the campus isn’t
safe,” said Harry Tucker, Di
rector of Campus Resources.
“This is the safest place I’ve
ever worked.” So, instead of
just a list of scary break-ins,
we’ll explore the history of
Science and Math security,
where it has been, and where
it is going.
Of Cameras and Access
Passes
At the start of NCSSM in
1980, with only 200 students,
campus security consisted
of four security officers who
worked shifts by themselves.
Of course, at that time, there
were only the dorms in the
BBR buildings. Watts had yet
to be renovated.
Doors were left open dur
ing the days and locked at
night, residence halls were
locked with key pads, and stu
dents only had keys to their
own rooms. “The problem,”
said Tueker,” was that students
could give away the keypad
codes to other students, and so
any [student] could get in the
dorms.”
With the expansion of
campus buildings in 1993,
I
campus security
was ramped up IH J ’ ■* ililllll'riM I f
to eight security
officers, with two
officers working
per shift.
Students had
electronic identi
fication badges,
similar to our Stu
dent IDs, which
allowed them to
enter into build
ings and onto
residence halls.
However, lost
badges were ex
pensive to replace One blue Assistance box and several blue Assistance poles
because of the located around campus. Access pass boxes also serve to
time it took to take
a student’s picture
and the cost of the electronic
chip, and it was unreasonable
to think that students would
never lose their badges.
2001 brought Tucker, and
soon after followed a brand
new security system. In 2005,
administration issued aecess
passes, which were both in
expensive and small so they
could easily be put on key
rings, given to visitors, or re
placed. Tucker emphasizes the
importance of calling the secu
rity measures “access passes,”
instead of “fobs” as they were
formerly known, because of
a slang meaning of “fob” and
the need to be culturally sensi
tive.
One thing that seniors
might remember from 2008
is the installment of cameras
throughout campus, and how
upset their seniors may have
been about what they saw as
an invasion of privacy.
“Cameras were mainly put
in here as an investigative tool.
as a security measure,” Tucker
said. “When we gave thought
to putting cameras around, we
put them on the elevators be
cause of vandalism, and there
was a lot of sexual activity go
ing on in the elevator.”
Tueker wanted to make
sure that students knew the
benefits of cameras on cam
pus. “[We’ve also] solved sev
eral cases of theft of student
laptops. We’ve never done one
sinister thing with these cam
eras. We’ve helped people find
lost things, find stolen things.
We’ve used them for law en
forcement only; we don’t use
them to watch students.”
Despite administration’s
best efforts to assuage student
concerns, students last year
even made t-shirts that read
“NCSSM is watching you”
to express their concerns with
administrative actions.
“The bad part [about a two-
year school] is we don’t get
to know you because you’re
only here for two
years. The good
part is that if we
do anything con
troversial there
won’t be any
grief about it two
years from now,”
Tucker said. He
wasn’t complete
ly Joking.
The most re
cent additions
to campus secu
rity have been
emergency blue
lights, which en
able passersby-
in-distress to
have immediate
access to cam
pus security, defibrillators, in
the event that a student or staff
member experiences heart
failure while somewhere on
campus, and campus resource
officers, Durham policemen
who work around the clock.
Both the blue light and
defibrillators are stationed
all throughout the school and
are easily accessible and user-
friendly, while the police offi-
eers work in the room behind
Bryan Desk.
Of Mishaps and
Mayhem
Having described all of
the security measures put into
place to make the North Caro
lina School of Science and
Math a safe campus, it would
be inaccurate to ignore some
of the security incidents that
the sehool has had.
For example, in 2002 when
NCSSM first went to electron
ic access with the ID cards,
Rick Hess, Assistant Director
of Campus Resources, reealls
a time when several students
broke into his office, which
was located in the ETC build
ing, with a master key.
“[The students] went into
[my] office, went onto the
computer, and made them
selves ID cards with universal
aecess.”
The stupid thing, Hess re
calls, was that the students
left their photos up on the
computer sereen, so when
Hess got back to his office, he
knew exactly who the students
were. “This was the reason we
spent several thousand dollars
to change out the loeks and to
get rid of the old master keys,”
said Hess.
Both Tueker and Hess
cringed at the thought of stu
dents having master keys,
as it is still one of their main
goals to get rid of all student-
held master keys, whether it is
through anonymous turn-ins or
catching someone in the aet.
Last year, several students
were sent home because they
were found to have broken
into the registrar’s office and
gained access to administra
tive passwords. These pass
words enabled students to look
at other students’ schedules,
and access personal student
information.
However, there were sev
eral different levels of partici
pation in the haeking incident,
which made it difficult to pun
ish students fairly. “[TTiere
were] students who broke in
and got the password, oth
ers who went on [Unicenter]
5-10 times, and people who
only went on 1-2 times,” said
Tucker.
See “Security” Page 6
Workservice Inequity: To Three or Not To Three
By Seon Kang
Work service is an integral
part of the NCSSM experience
that allows students to give
baek to their community. The
overall system is positive.
Jennifer Ashe, the Work
Service Coordinator, describes
it as “building community and
a relationship.” However, work
service is not entirely without
flaws.
The NCSSM work service
guidelines require students to
work three hours a week in
order to graduate. However,
many students do not actually
work for three hours every
week. In fact, students reported
weekly work service amounts
of time that ranged from thirty
minutes to over three hours.
Ashe acknowledges this
fact and says it is fine as long
as the supervisor is abiding
by general guidelines. The
guidelines are fairly general
and establish mostly basic
protocol.
The inequity may have
risen from multiple factors.
One possibility is an excess of
juniors that need to be assigned
to work service. According to
Ashe, sometimes supervisors
receive more juniors than they
request and thus have too many
students and not enough jobs.
Another faetor is that
supervisors are not consistent
in their work service needs.
Some supervisors are very busy
at certain times and request the
necessary number of students.
However, during the rest of the
time, there are more students
than jobs.
“I had work service
students at the Bryan Lobby
desk for years, and they did
homework whenever 1 didn’t
have anything for them to
do,” said instructor John Kirk.
“The students’ contributions
are needed and very valuable,
even if they weren’t busy all the
time. They were basically on
call for when the phone rang,
a visitor showed up, to hand
out loop tickets, or if I needed
them for something else.” But
this is not the case in all work
service environments.
Biology instructor Leslie
Brinson demands full
participation from her work
service students. Brinson has
Mara Guevarra serves food as part of her
workservice. A cafeteria work service student,
Guevarra works a full three hours a week.
•Photo by Dustin Burleson
requested four work service
students this year, even though
she occasionally needs more.
Brinson almost always has jobs
for her work service students.
and when she
needs more
work done,
she borrows
work service
students
from other
supervisors in
the Biology
department.
Brinson
explained that
she would
rather borrow
students who
may otherwise
have no work
to do than
have too many
students and
not enough
jobs. Brinson
is extremely
satisfied with
the work
service system.
She appears
to be in an
ideal work
service scenario, in which
time is efficiently spent and
the number of students fits the
amount of work.
Students had their own
suggestions on how to balance
the work service system.
“Equalize and have everyone
work less,” said junior Tueker
Jones without hesitation. Jones
suggested lowering the weekly
requirement and distributing
students so that they are all
constantly engaged during
work service.
Junior Keagan Sacripanti
suggested finding more jobs,
and possibly making hall
housekeeping a work service
assignment.
Concerning the number of
work service hours, Ashe says
that “as we grow, it’s something
we might have to look at.”
For now, the solution is in the
work service guidelines, which
state that students receive a
different work service job
every trimester.
The idea is that a student
who has an intensive work
service this trimester may
receive a less intensive one
the next trimester, though
this ‘solution’ is all based on
probability. Ashe says that
due to probability, equality is
established over the course of
the year.