“During the COVID19 Pandemic, the buildings were restricted due to a mandate from the Governor’s Office. The intent was to prevent widespread infectious disease on campus. We didn’t modify our building hours, we simply have returned back to our previous Pre-COVID19 building hours.” This was said by Melvin Cornelius, Chief of Police at Saint Xavier University in the news article published ‘Students React to Change in Swipe Access’.
Just because a mandate was lifted doesn’t mean we have to go back to the way things were. Some changes can be a good thing. We think keeping the Warde Academic Center on Swipe Access entrance is a good thing.
Although our university is located in a relatively safe and secure area, that shouldn’t be a reason for keeping doors unlocked. Society has proven that anything can happen, to any community, at any time.
In 2022 alone, there have been 35 school shootings. According to edweek.org in the article ‘School Shootings Reach Record Level Data Shows’, school shootings have reached a record number of injuries and deaths related to school shootings.
Keeping all entrances on swipe access is a simple layer of additional security.
The Xavierite’s editorial board has had several conversations about this issue, and one of the members brought up that swipe access may make things more difficult for students sometimes, for example if they lose their Cougar card, but ease shouldn’t be a goal when it concerns physical safety.
“That’s a minor inconvenience I’d be willing to accept to keep any potentially harmful people from entering the campus buildings”, the board member said.
Saint Xavier is a small campus, which makes it a bit easier for campus safety to look over things, but the university’s safety department is extremely short-staffed right now.
In a Beverly-Mt. Greenwood Patch article written by Jeff Arnold, as of October 5, 2022, SXU’s Safety Department only consists of “three full-time officers who do not hold other jobs, three part-time officers, and six security officers”.
The lack of department members is a result of 11 officers resigning from their positions since the start of the school year. Prior to resignations, the staff had “seven full-time officers, 13 part-time officers, and nine security officers”.
Since Arnold’s follow up article, published on October 11, SXU has not made any further comments on this issue and have not announced any hirings to the vacant positions.
So despite SXU’s campus being relatively small, the lack of officers and security begs the question, are they currently equipped to patrol a campus with open doors?
This isn’t a critique or drag of our Public Safety Department, we genuinely believe they do a good job here on campus. But we also believe keeping all doors unlocked throughout the day makes their jobs exceedingly more difficult than they already are, especially given the fact they are currently short staffed.
Another board member agreed with the consensus that the decision to keep the doors unlocked was not in the best interest of the school’s safety. “I would feel a general sense of safety if swipe access was required”.
That same member went on to say “I do understand that the campus is open to the community, but having all of the doors unlocked with no supervision is basically asking for a problem to occur”.
There are various ways for Saint Xavier to serve the community without having a completely open campus.
A solution to this complicated situation could be keeping doors locked until Public Safety has a bigger staff. That way there are more officers patrolling campus at all times.
Another quick fix could be keeping just the two main entrances (Warde 1 and 2) open throughout the day, and locking them at an earlier time, instead of 10pm.
At the Warde Academic Center all doors except the the main entrance (Warde 1) are to lock at 8pm sharp, with Warde 1 locking at 10pm, as expressed by Saint Xavier’s Chief of Police, Melvin Cornelius.
The university, in accordance with SXU’s Campus Safety and Police, ensures that there is a Security Officer on duty at the Information Desk inside the main entrance until 10pm.
Yet on the contrary, this week’s news article “Students React to Change in Swipe Access” revealed there was no officer at the desk at nearly nine o’clock at night on November 2.
Moreover, there were doors that were not the main entrance that were unlocked past 8 pm.
Click here to further read about The Xavierite’s investigation on swipe access and what doors were found unlocked past 8 pm.
Since when has crime ever cared about what neighborhood you live in?
We spoke to Angela Sarlas, the Vice President for Communication on Student Government Association, and she said that students may have been voicing concerns about the matter, but have not unequivocally stated they feel unsafe at SXU.
Sure, SXU may be a generally safe place, but the assumption of safety cannot prevent something potentially harmful from happening. The best measures are the preventative ones.
If anyone has any concerns or questions, please feel free to contact SGA, write a letter to the editor (thexavieritenewspaper.com), or attend an open forum.