This post was updated Oct. 26 at 7:28 p.m.
It’s 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. You planned to study with your friend in her Dykstra Hall dorm when you realize you forgot your BruinCard – necessary for entry – on the other side of the Hill.
Oh well. Such is the first-year experience.
Unless, of course, your friend lives in Saxon or Hitch Suites, in which case you can simply climb through her window.
As a first-year Saxon Suites resident, I couldn’t help but wonder how these two systems – plus others for different residential communities – could exist in tandem. What’s the point of nightly, TSA-style security in one building if the one across the street is free to roam around in like a shopping mall?
Consistent security across the Hill and across dorm types should be a standard, rather than something residents need to ask for. UCLA Housing needs to update measures to improve safety, especially for the suite communities on the Hill.
“Overnight security patrols conduct nightly rounds in addition to existing Residential Life, UCPD and CSO (Community Service Officer) patrols in these facilities,” UCLA Housing said in an emailed statement. “Security cameras are connected to the campus security camera network.”
However, this explanation falls short when UCLA Housing equates simply patrolling an area without concrete knowledge of who is a resident and who is a guest to actually scanning residents’ BruinCards.
Victor Imo, a Housing Safety Ambassador, is responsible for swiping classic and deluxe hall residents’ BruinCards to allow entry between 9 p.m and 5 a.m.
“I feel like it does a good job at monitoring who comes in and out,” said Imo, a third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student.
During my first year, I probably wasted at least two cumulative hours standing next to an HSA, waiting for my friends to come down and identify me as their guest. As a nonresident, this was incredibly annoying.
But maybe that is how it should be.
Bryan Lee, a first-year biology student and Rieber Hall resident, said that, while it can be slightly annoying, he doesn’t particularly mind an HSA scanning his BruinCard in the evenings.
“You just give them your card, they scan it and then go,” Lee said.
If a classic hall is your home, a security checkpoint shouldn’t add more than two seconds to your trip upstairs.
So how come only some residents enjoy this protection, while others can only trust that the lock on their window is secure?
Imo said he thinks it’s because of the high foot traffic and the ease with which non-students would otherwise be able to enter the residence hall.
“At least for the classics, it’s more understandable to have it.”
Other, less crowded buildings keep their residents safe with plastic gates that require a BruinCard to pass through.
This includes Centennial Hall, home of first-year biology student Joseph Kim. Kim said he wouldn’t make any changes to his building’s security system.
“I feel safe because you’ve got to use the key card to get into the elevator,” Kim said.
Residential buildings on the Hill take safety pretty seriously.
Except for the Suites.
A Saxon Suites resident was sexually assaulted in July 2024 by an intruder at night. UCPD said it increased security patrolling in the area following the incident, but a major safety discrepancy remains.
This problem is compounded by the On Campus Housing regulations that preclude students from taking their safety into their own hands. Regulation A.16, for instance, prohibits residents from filming, recording or taking pictures of any person on campus without their permission.
The regulation explicitly outlaws video doorbell cameras, which many students might otherwise install in case of a break-in.
Worse yet, regulation B.22 forbids “positioning or attachment of any materials on ledges, awnings, windows, or outside walls.” This means students can’t install protective window screens if they feel unsafe.
Instead, they must trust campus safety teams to have their backs.
“We also regularly receive incident reports from various campus departments to identify and quickly respond to situations of concern,” the UCLA Housing spokesperson said in the emailed statement.
I don’t doubt the promptness of the university’s emergency response systems, but I wish potential threats could be addressed before they become emergencies.
To be clear, it doesn’t make sense to subject all Saxon and Hitch Suite residents to an attended security system like in the classics. There just aren’t enough residents to warrant that kind of surveillance.
However, it’s not absurd to assert the Suites need a simple, scan-to-enter gate around their perimeters. Even if they’re easily accessible, their presence would make clear to passersby who is and isn’t meant to be there.
Safety and peace of mind are well worth the swipe of a BruinCard.
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