This past week the College announced the formation of a committee to discuss the implementation of the decision, announced last term, to lock the entrances to all the dorms on campus. Its responsibilities will not include any review of the basic premises underlying that door locking policy. Unfortunately, that premise is fatally flawed. The entire door locking concept must be framed, as it has not been, by the fact that Dartmouth is an almost uniquely safe environment, particularly as it relates to this particular question.
Violent crimes committed by non-students on students are practically unheard of.
In more than 40 years there have been two murders affecting the Dartmouth community. One, that of the Zantops, occurred in an entirely different town. The other occurred at an off-campus apartment, and was perpetrated by a graduate student who was well known to the victim. Theft at Dartmouth is certainly not unheard of. However, it is nearly always carried out by students who would have access to the dorms no matter what the door locking policy.