Campus Council debated two current residential life issues—transportation and security problems with Central Campus and the organization of quad councils—at its meeting Thursday night.
Most of the discussion revolved around Central Campus safety issues and the role of Securitas officers in protecting the student body. Members expressed unhappiness with the performance and effectiveness of Securitas since extra security forces were contracted last September.
“The philosophy of having additional security forces on campus makes sense, but they aren’t doing half as much as they could,” said senior Anthony Vitarelli, president of Campus Council. He also stressed the need for a mechanism through which “inferior” Securitas behavior can be addressed.
Council representatives voiced concern that Securitas officers were unable to take appropriate action to address any crime taking place and instead had to contact the Duke University Police Department. The color of the uniforms and the screening process for employment were also issues of contention.
“We are dealing with supervillains, and instead of hiring superheroes, we just have these guys in brown uniforms,” said sophomore Damjan Denoble, vice president of the council.
Central Campus representative Katrina Howell, a senior, noted that the number of safety complaints on Central have decreased since Securitas began to patrol the campus.
The Central bussing system also received attention from the council. Howell cited the necessity of two major reforms: an additional bus to run during peak traffic hours and a new bus stop on Oregon Street, which would ease access to the Devil’s Den and increase safety for Central residents.
The council also extensively discussed the quad councils, setting new standards for the groups and urging them to discuss their respective quads’ aesthetics.
Quad councils, beginning this year, will have event logs that record important information concerning past quad events and program information from the previous year. In order to lower programming costs, Campus Council intends to invest in equipment—such as microphones, amplifiers and video projectors—that quad councils repeatedly rent for events.
In other business:
The council unanimously passed a resolution calling for the University to add more teller machines that enable students to add more food or FLEX points 24 hours a day on Central Campus, East Campus and distant locations on West Campus. The resolution also suggested creating an online system for adding food and FLEX points.
Campus Council also discussed the composition and obligations of the task force that will be created to review the process of linked housing.
The group will meet at least monthly and submit monthly reports to both Campus Council and Residence Life and Housing Services about its evaluation of the housing assignments process. The task force is expected to create a proposal by Sept. 16, which will be reviewed by RLHS and then submitted to the Board of Trustees.
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