University officials put a plan into motion last spring to increase security camera presence in residence halls.
According to Rick Arcuri, director of business operations and auxiliary services, the university has a list of buildings that they have been adding cameras to since last spring.
Due to budgeting, they are making slow progress on the list, which includes Cobeen, O’Donnell, Mashuda and Schroeder Halls.
A lot of the work on cameras has been replacement and repairs due to images becoming more unclear as the cameras age.
Arcuri said he worked with the Marquette University Police Department to decide the locations for camera placement.
Campus apartments were also included in this process. Campus Town East’s cameras were among the oldest in the system; however, due to changes in technology, they were updated, according to Arcuri.
“MUPD and the university at large are interested in adding cameras where it makes sense to put them, especially as it adds a safety factor for students,” Arcuri said.
RAs told their residents about the new cameras during floor meetings at the beginning of the semester.
Greta Kutz, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences who lived in Schroeder Hall as a sophomore, said she remembers new cameras being installed last year.
“While I was living there … halfway through the year they installed new ones on my floor and the lobby for sure,” Kutz said.
However, Aileen Stanton, a sophomore in the College of Communication and Mashuda Hall resident, said her RA told residents that cameras in the halls were added over the summer for surveilance.
Bridget Horn and Melany Vang, both sophomores in the College of Nursing and Schroeder Hall residents, noticed the cameras when they moved in. “I don’t really think about them that much,” Horn said. “The (RAs) commented on them during our first meeting of the semester and said that they were there for security reasons.”
Vang feels conflicted about the new cameras.
“For safety reasons, it’s a great way to keep residents safer, but also it kind of invades our privacy,” Vang said.
Vang said that she has always felt safe in the dorms, but said, “the university should test out how well the cameras work in a few residence halls before they install them in every dorm.”
