At Indiana University of Pennsylvania, each campus security officer is assigned a couple of dormitories, where he or she gets to know the residents just like a beat cop. At Johns Hopkins, administrators warned former student Robert Harwood Jr. to stay away from campus after he harassed Rex Chao, a sophomore. But Harwood returned and fatally shot Chao in 1996. What college officials say they struggle with is the balance between ensuring safety and creating an open campus that encourages students to use language labs and art studios at all hours. When Harvard issued keyless entry cards that worked only for a student's own dorm, for example, students just propped open the doors.
Colleges are keenly aware of the consequences of having security that appears to be lax.
Stamats Communications, an educational consulting firm based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has found that prospective students now rate campus safety among the top five factors in choosing a school. The difficulty of keeping out dangerous visitors is especially vexing at Columbia. Two years ago, law student Hyeseung Lynda Hong was murdered in a residence hall. An ex-boyfriend was accused. At the time, an editorial in the student newspaper, the Daily Spectator, urged students not to blame the university security force.