Public Safety Takes Over as Card-Swipers

PUBLISHED APRIL 17, 2007

Beginning today and lasting at least through the end of the semester, students will no longer work as card-swipers at the front desks of on-campus residences and Lerner Hall.

The change, announced yesterday, came in response to Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech University and is aimed at increasing security. According to Rosemary Keane, assistant vice president for communications in the Division of Student Services, students currently working at those desks will be reassigned and will not become unemployed. Columbia University public safety officers will take their card-swiping jobs.

"In response to Virginia Tech, our goal was to make sure that we have uniformed officers in each residence hall and in Lerner for the rest of the semester for added security precautions," Lisa Hogarty, executive vice president for Student and Administrative Services, said last night.

One student, who was working at the front desk of Lerner Hall last night and declined to be named for fear of losing her job, said that she felt the move would have little impact on security. "I don't like the idea of turnstiles, anyways," she said, noting that two of the three turnstiles were broken and that anybody can walk through without swiping. "If people really want to get into the building, they'll find a way."

In an e-mail sent to Columbia students last night, Hogarty announced that there will be a candlelight vigil at the sundial tonight at 9 p.m. in remembrance of the 33 students who died during the shooting. University Chaplain Jewelnel Davis is scheduled to speak. The University has also extended today's office hours for Counseling and Psychological Services until 11 p.m. today.

"The entire Columbia University community mourns the loss of these individuals and we send our prayers and condolences to their friends and families and to all the students, staff and faculty at Virginia Tech," Hogarty wrote in the e-mail.

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Original Source: Columbia Spectator
<a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/24884">http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/24884</a>

Editorial Staff

2008-02-17

Kacey Beddoes

Tom Faure (tomfaure@gmail.com)

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