Security, parking are big concerns

Tiffany Johnson hears an alarm sound in Rams Commons at least 20 times a day. She is a freshman resident of building three, and her room is located at the end of the hall, near one of the entranceways. “The alarms are very aggravating,” she said, “but I think they are helping a little.” The “aggravating” alarm is one of several new safety measures that campus security has instituted to provide better protection for students in dormitories, in parking lots and on campus grounds. All doors in Rams Commons have an alarm which will sound if the door is left open for more than 10 seconds. According to Rams Commons’ staff, the alarm sounds for an additional few seconds once the door has been shut. “We also have cameras on those doors,” Willie Bell, chief of campus security, said. “It’s to keep people from propping open doors and letting people in.” Captain Marcus Sutton added that there are more than two dozen cameras on campus. “We view 32 cameras [in the campus police station].” And while there are at least eight cameras located around Rams Commons, Bell admited that, “We could really use about 15 more if you ask me.”What’s the Use When an alarm sounds, residents of the dormintory , ignore it. Security guards reportedly do not rush to the scene, nor is it apparent that campus security has been alerted to the alarm sounding, so many students ask, ‘What’s the use?’ “If that’s the case, then we need to change that,” Bell said. Otis Jefferson, assistant general manager for Rams Commons, said the alarms are a positive addition to the property. “It’s actually been helping with keeping students from propping open doors,” he said. “We have RA’s (resident assistants) and a security officer from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. He goes and checks the doors and the RA’s do the same.” Students have mixed views about the alarms. Anthony Gilchrist is a freshman resident of Rams Commons and he believes the alarms do not serve a purpose because they are heard all day. “When there really is an intruder, nobody will know because students are so used to hearing the alarm,” he said. As far as holding open doors, Gilchrist said, “Everybody holds the door open for someone if they’re coming in behind them. You’re not going to just shut the door in someone’s face. It’s just polite.” Chief Bell wants students to think about what they’re doing. “See, that’s tailgating…and that’s a tough situation we have with students,” he said. “Students don’t normally ask the person they allow in, if he or she is, in fact, a resident or student. That’s going to have to be part of our safety tip program that we are going to have to go into the buildings and sale.” Bell said the campus police will soon hold hall meetings, at which safety matters will be discussed. He added that allowing intruders in the dorms has been one of the biggest issues across the United States in dormitories.More Patrols for Parking In addition to boosting security in dormitories, campus police are implementing measures to secure parking lots. “We’ve added an additional person to stay in the parking lot,” Bell said. This officer sits in the gated parking lots from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Monday through Friday. “He just stays down there the entire eight hours,” Chief Bell said. Then there are bicycle patrols, and Bell said one arrest has already been made this year by an officer on bike. It doesn’t end there. Bell said campus security is contracting with an outside firm to enforce parking permits. “We’re going to add an additional security contract firm to do nothing but walk the parking lots and write citations.” This measure is being used to encourage people to buy their parking decals and ensure that all vehicles are parked within their prospective areas and zones. “Right now we have a lot of students who drive their cars across the campus from class to class, park anywhere they can, and we’re writing a lot of tickets for them,” Bell said. “We have enough spaces for our students who live here on campus if they stay in the dorm areas.”According to Bell, anywhere from 1,300 to 1,400 commuter vehicles frequent the campus in a single day, and if students parked where they were supposed to, commuters, who consume the bulk of the parking spaces, would always have a space, too. The number of decals sold for an area and the number of spaces available just don’t match up. For instance, last year, 185 students bought decals for Wilson Hall parking, but there are 200 spaces available. “Therefore, we should have had 15 spaces empty down there,” Chief Bell said. But everyone knows, unless it’s the weekend, there aren’t ever 15 spaces in the Wilson Hall lot. Areas behind F.L Atkins, the computer science building, KRW, and Hauser are designed for commuter students. Commuters also have the gravel lot to suffice. To help control the parking difficulties, the campus police staff has taken some new measures. “We’re doing a lot of foot patrol to help combat (the problem),” Bell said. He has also increased his student patrol team from eight to 11 students, “So they can help be additional eyes and ears on our campus.” The student patrol staff works from 6 p.m. to midnight and act as escorts for students who do not wish to walk alone at night.Future Plans By now, the majority of students (and staff) have noticed that when they went to buy their parking decals, they had to reach a little deeper into their pockets. WSSU is trying to be the first HBCU in North Carolina to build a parking deck on campus. As you may have guessed, this ultimately means raising the price of decals. “We know that’s the next step,” said Chief Bell. “We’re out of land … we’ve got to go up right now.” Chief Bell hopes to put the deck behind K.R. Williams Auditorium to feed the bulk of the campus activity. “It would take care every bit of the community needs…we wouldn’t have any more problems there … for at least three years.” If you are a current student at WSSU, chances are, you will not reap the benefits of the hopeful parking garage. Parking decals will have to be raised over the next three to five years to generate enough money to begin building a parking deck. As of yet, there is no estimate as to how much decal prices will have to be raised over the next few years, but “We need to move that way … to meet the demands of the student and faculty here,” Chief Bell said. According to Jorge Quintal, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities, The estimated cost for a 500-space parking garage is estimated at about 5 million dollars with each space running about 10 to 12 thousand dollars. Adding another parking gate for the faculty and staff on the side of campus which houses F.L. Atkins and the Computer Science building is another prospective added feature to campus. As of now, faculty on that side of campus have nowhere to park. “This should be in place by the end of September,” said Chief Bell. “This will be strictly for faculty and staff.” Once this is completed, Chief Bell said his department will then feel like they have given faculty and staff adequate parking. Crossing the Street Chief Bell is aware that WSSU still has to deal with the issue that thousands of students cross the street daily from the Rams Commons side of campus to main campus. Wilson hall holds 400 students while Rams Commons holds 444. “That’s 844 students and in a course of a day, if you just say everybody over there comes across campus at least three times…that’s over 2,400 students coming across here in a course of a day.” According to Chief Bell, building a crosswalk is not solely in his hands. That is going to require everybody-the City, the State, and the University- to build.”You can’t keep coming that way, and something bad doesn’t happen, so we hope that one day we can get something done there,” Chief Bell said. In the meantime, the university is working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the City of Winston-Salem to get traffic rerouted away from the campus area and make the busy street of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard a low-traffic area. “We’re trying to construct a road that will redirect traffic from Reynolds Park road and to Highway 52 North bound MLK boulevard toward Highway 52,” Quintal said.