Cameras add security to residence hall entrances, hall floors
Four residence halls received extra surveillance during the summer and fall.
Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life, said 49 cameras were installed in Merrill, Sweeney, Beddow and Thorpe halls. Upgrades were implemented to the cameras in Saxe, Herrig, Celani and Fabiano halls, as well as the Towers residence halls.
“It gives us the ability to monitor doors and respond to unauthorized doors being propped open,” Holtgreive said.
The cameras on the exterior of the residence halls are next to entrances and side doors, as well as in the main areas of the floors. Holtgreive said the cameras on top of buildings did not provide the quality of picture he was looking for.
He said the parking lots and building perimeters of campus will be left up to Central Michigan University Police, not Residence Life.
“We have got the areas of concern for us (covered),” Holtgreive said.
Cost: $150,000
The cost for the cameras’ wiring and software for Merrill, Sweeney, Beddow and Thorpe halls was $150,000, Holtgreive said. The upgrades to the Towers area, along with Fabiano, Saxe, Herrig, and Celani halls did not cost Residence Life because it was equipment they already had, said Coordinator of Residential Security Ben Witt.
CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said there are more than 300 cameras on campus. He anticipates more cameras will be installed in parking lots and on buildings throughout the campus as remodels and money permits.
He said CMU Police has regular meetings on safety and security for the campus.
“Lighting, the design of the building and cameras are all discussed,” Yeagley said. “Whenever there is a renovation done to a building on campus, we give our input on where cameras should be installed.”
CMU Community Police Officer Mike Sienkiewicz said the cameras are used for mostly after-the-fact situations. It is a tool of review if needed. However, there is some live monitoring, he said.
“I have it set up in my office so, if I need to, I can watch the main areas where people move the most,” Sienkiewicz said.
Those include the main entrances of the halls and the stairwells, he said, which, in the past, have had incidences of vandalism and crime.
Witt said the cameras enhance safety and improve on current systems that work in residential security.
“They are an invaluable resource,” Witt said. “We also have a change in philosophy by adding security to the perimeter instead of only concentrating on the interior.”
North Campus residence halls are older buildings, and camera installation is yet to be determined, Holtgreive said.
“We are still evaluating to upgrade or replace those facilities,” he said. “Once that decision is made, we will then know where we stand on camera installation.”
