Editorial:
Vandalism gives rise to security concerns

During a typical four-year stint at college, one will hear about vandalized property, filched items, unwelcome visitors, false fire alarms at four in the morning, drug busts, all-out brou-ha-has and an array of other escapades that require some sort of law enforcement intervention. These are the things that breathe life into the Security Briefs section of The Rider News and are a little morbidly amusing as long as they didn’t happen to us or a close friend.

But then there are issues that can’t be forgotten as easily. When someone either gets hurt or feels that his or her safety has been jeopardized, something’s not right here. While people can’t come to college naively expecting to have the safest, most trouble-free years of their lives, they shouldn’t have to anticipate what sort of property destruction will befall their cars next or who will find a way to break into their resident halls or Greek houses, either.

The major concern isn’t even the fact that there has been a rash of security issues revolving around the Phi Sigma Sigma parking lot and house. This is more of a cause-and-effect problem. Granted, it’s obvious that Rider students are perfectly capable of just as much destruction as a non-university-affiliated individual, but at least as students we belong here. When strange men are nosing around campus, something has to be done.

Maybe we’d all feel a little bit safer if there were more being done to keep people who don’t belong on campus from even entering Rider’s property in the first place. When one can drive on past the security entrance without displaying either a college ID or a driver’s license, or by holding up an item that is clearly not a form of identification, such as a spoon or a shoe, that’s an indication of how much more needs to be done to make sure the people who are roving around Rider’s grounds are safe and reliable individuals, not suspicious wastrels who threaten the security of this campus.

It’s not like this university is a fairy-tale land of bunnies, butterflies, peace and togetherness. Cars have been stolen and people have been shot on this campus. A college campus simply isn’t a haven for those of us stuck in limbo between childhood and adulthood. We need to be aware that things can get ugly, but we shouldn’t have to brace ourselves for the worst possible scenario. We need to be alert, but not paranoid.

The people who make up Public Safety are just that — people. They make mistakes and they’re bound to miss something here and there. But when one specific area is the regular site of a stream of security violations and safety concerns, maybe that’s a sign that someone ought to be stationed in that general vicinity and be on the watch for suspicious activity.

It’s not like Rider is a huge campus. When compared to universities such as Rowan or Rutgers, one realizes that the entirety of this campus doesn’t really take up much space. And while it is difficult to know what goes on in every shadowy corner and behind every building, and because it really is quite easy to sneak onto Rider’s property undetected, that’s all the more reason to take greater efforts in making sure that this campus is a safe place for its students.

While ­— knock on wood — nothing terrible has happened recently in terms of major security mishaps, maybe these outbreaks of vandalism and attempted break-ins are a wake-up call. Maybe we should start being a little more wary and take a few more safety precautions to keep anything truly awful from occurring.