Increased security measures coming to Central Campus for its last semester housing undergrads

Students received an email Thursday afternoon announcing increased Central Campus security measures after a student reported being raped in an apartment common room Dec. 13.

As Central Campus goes into its last semester housing undergraduates, the University will install Duke Card readers outside common room entries and has already installed automatic door closures, wrote Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, in the email. He added that Duke will mount security cameras in "key areas" in addition to increasing security personnel and vehicle patrols in the area.

"We’ve heard from many of you and your families with expressions of concern about safety on Central Campus and want to assure you that we hear you and care," Moneta previously wrote in a late December email to students. "Nothing is more important [than] your safety."  

Previously, access to Central Campus common rooms was controlled by passcodes, which were reset the afternoon following the reported sexual assault.

Kristen Brown, associate vice president of news, communications and media, declined to comment to The Chronicle in late December as to whether there was security footage of the perpetrator. John Dailey, Duke University Police Department chief of police, also did not respond to request for comment regarding security footage in December.

The increased concern surrounding Central Campus security comes after a student reported being raped by a man holding a knife in a common room. A Duke Alert reported that the perpetrator—described as a white male with short brown hair—entered the Pace Street common room between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. in December. 

Central Campus is slated to cease housing undergraduates at the end of the Spring semester as the University seeks to shift sophomores, juniors and seniors to West Campus dormitories in the long run.