By Hunter Wells
Recently, two female Boston University students were assaulted in their residence hall by two unknown men. The men were signed into the hall in a process similar to the one used to sign in guests at Northeastern, according to local media reports.
Two other female students who did not know the men had signed them into Clafin Hall, where the alleged assault took place early Sunday morning. Neither of the alleged victims, who had left their door unlocked, were physically injured.
“What happened at BU could happen here tonight, it could happen anywhere,” said Jim Ferrier, associate director for public safety at Northeastern. “It comes down to trusting that residents won’t sign in a stranger.”
Thomas Cote, the director of residence safety and security at Residential Life, said the current security system in place at Northeastern is more secure in comparison to other schools.
“We are a leader as we cover most residential hall entrances with people checking IDs. Proctors are backed up with electronic access control and video surveillance. Many schools just use card access and do not have people checking IDs,” he said.
Both Cote and Ferrier said the current system is dependent on staff and residents following correct security issues. According to “A Guide to Residence Hall Living,” students are responsible for their guests. Anyone a student signs in qualifies as a guest.
“We constantly have people challenging the access control and on many occasions it is the residents or guests of residents who try to circumvent the system,” Cote said. “Students need to understand that these provisions are in place for their safety. Circumventing these safety procedures can put students at risk.”
Leanne Fortune, a middler mechanical engineering major, experienced a similar confrontation in Davenport Commons last year.
“I was in my Dav A apartment and I woke up to two guys in my apartment,” Fortune said. “The doors lock when they shut so I don’t know how they got in.”
Fortune said the men did not cause harm but seemed intoxicated and confused. While Fortune was sleeping at the time of the incident, she shared the apartment with five others, who disappeared when she awoke.
“I went to the RD (resident director) to try to describe the men but I didn’t have my glasses on,” she said. “Nothing was ever really done.”
DJ Murray, a freshman physical therapy major who lives in Stetson West, said he is guilty of signing in people who he personally does not know.
“I have before but it’s been a friends’ friend,” he said. “They were someone I had just met, not a stranger.”
Murray said he does not see an incident similar to the BU assaults happening here. “We’re smaller than BU and we are more centralized,” he said. “It’s also easier not to think about [these things].”
On Friday, preceding the incident at BU, Cote said Northeastern public safety coincidentally sent out a notice regarding residence hall security like tailgating, students following I.D. procedures and residents not locking their residence halls.
The notice, called Safenet was not e-mailed to students but was announced on the myNEU portal and the NUPD website. Ferrier said he believes many students did not see it. “I cannot make people read the safety notice,” he said. “I can only send it out.” If students are not receiving the Safenet alerts, he said, they can still be informed about crime on campus through the Crime Log published weekly in The News.
“A large percent of students read the Crime Log,” Ferrier said. “There is not much we can put in a Safenet message that people won’t read about in the Crime Log.”
He added that Northeastern is unique with the Crime Log because it talks about how and why a crime happened, which is not usually done in other publications.
“Just seeing that information makes people think it could happen to them,” he said. “It clearly has an educational value because our theft rate here is lower than at many urban universities.”
Despite several students admitting they would sign in someone they did not know for a friend, they said they feel secure with the system in place at Northeastern.
“I feel really safe,” said Kathryn Brown, a sophomore international affairs major. “Even living in Davenport in Roxbury I have not really felt unsafe, even walking alone at night.”
Cote said that whenever an incident does occur, the situation is evaluated in order to determine what can be done to enhance security.
“With the installation of the CCTV cameras in the lobbies we are now better equipped to identify problematic areas,” he said. Ferrier said beyond providing a safe environment the rest of the responsibility is up to the students.
“Those people were invited in,” Ferrier said, regarding the incident at BU. “And they went into an unlocked room.”
