Security Increases on College Campuses

Most universities have increased police presence on campus and tried to raise community awareness of safety and harassment issues.

But at least one school is taking additional measures to ensure student safety.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania administrators are planning to provide Penn students, faculty and staff with identification badges they will be required to wear on campus.

The Penn police Web site states that the main campus road, the Locust Walk, is permanently limited to emergency access only.

Some Penn students are divided over the additional security measures.

Ashley Abbott, a nursing undergraduate at Penn, said she already feels safe on campus but supports the required IDs.

But Jeffrey Barnes, a student in Penn's College of Arts and Sciences, said IDs would be annoying and ineffective.

"IDs would be kind of pointless," Barnes said. "That form of security would be inadequate to prevent a terrorist attack. Terrorists would have other primary targets anyway. Why choose a university?"

Some officials at other universities say increased police presence and a heightened level of awareness are sufficient to ensure campus safety.

James Devitt, Columbia University public affairs officer, said the university has been on a heightened level of security since the terrorist attacks.

Devitt said Columbia has taken many safety issues into consideration, including the university's urban location and close proximity to an attack site.

He added that precautions have been taken to prevent harassment of certain ethnic groups.

"We have been aware of Muslim and Arab students and have taken necessary steps to ensure their safety," Devitt said.

Some public safety officials from the UNC system said they are aware of possible security issues but are careful not to overreact.

N.C. State University Sgt. Jon Barnwell said police have increased visibility on campus.

Barnwell said critical areas on campus now are surveyed hourly, rather than once or twice a day.

Barnwell said the Department of Public Safety has no intentions of making students wear IDs but that policy states that all students, faculty and staff must be able to produce official university identification while on-campus.

He said campus security is in contact with the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation, especially because of the upcoming football game between N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Barnwell said dogs will be used to perform a bomb sweep of the stadium before the game.

"The gates will open an hour before the game, and people will be made to go in single file," he said.

"No large bags will be allowed into the stadium, and all bags are subject to search."

UNC-CH police also are evaluating potential safety problems.

"We continue to assess, on a daily basis, threats on this campus and others," UNC Police Chief Derek Poarch said. "At this time, there have been no threats.

"We have no intention of, nor have considered, having students wear IDs."

Some UNC-CH students say they are more alert to safety issues on-campus in the wake of the attacks but are not afraid.

But Monica Zuck, a sophomore from New Jersey, said many local students do not see the necessity for increased security because they haven't seen the destruction caused by the terrorist attacks firsthand.

"Many students on campus are nonchalant about what happened because it didn't hit home with them," Zuck said. "My backyard is still filled with smoke."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.