OPINION & EDITORIAL
Hollow cameras, hollow safety
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- A security fee-for-all (December 11, 2007)
- Farewell, Chancellor (December 10, 2007)
- $$FC (December 6, 2007)
- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
- Entitlement Town (December 4, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Take campus safety seriously (October 1, 2003)
- Opinion column: Women live in fear every day, not just Sept. 11 (September 30, 2001)
- Cameras infringe on privacy (January 30, 2007)
- Practice safe surveillance (January 31, 2007)
- Rebuilding should go beyond houses (September 21, 2005)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Thursday, February 5, 2004
Just as a college education has the potential to instill a remarkable degree of promise and intellect into students, crime has the ability to viciously stuff a tragic amount of trauma and fear into victims.
The UW is among America’s finest academic institutions and perennially turns out sharp, winnowing minds bound for a life of limitless accomplishments.
But with two assaults committed in downtown Madison just over a week ago, and a sexual assault perpetrated in Ogg Hall the following Monday, this great University risks allowing the devastating trauma and fear of crime to cast a shadow over the promise and intellect of some students.
Dean of Students Luoluo Hong, in speaking with this newspaper, has noted “Victims can do everything right and still get assaulted,” and she is correct in asserting that students of the UW, like anyone else, will always be vulnerable to a certain regrettable degree. Tragic incidents seen in recent weeks can never be completely eradicated, much less from a large, urban campus such as this.
But the school still has some way to come before such a point is reached.
According to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal, the security cameras in Ogg Hall were not operational at the time of last week’s sexual assault.
Powerless security cameras may instill a healthy Orwellian fear in many, but for those like last Monday’s culprit, the cameras must be able to serve their explicit purposes of creating videotape ripe with characteristics of a criminal so as to aid in investigative the process.
The UW Division of University Housing, upon being contacted by this board, asserts that the cameras in question are still non-operational because their installation is not complete. And although we applaud the school for taking a step in the right direction by purchasing such cameras, we regret that their installation drags on while students are seemingly betrayed before the cameras’ hollow lenses.
University administrators consistently extol the virtues of this campus’ relative safety, as touted in the UW’s admissions materials. In order to live up to this reputation — and this is truly a safe campus when compared to many other situated in urban environments — the university must move swiftly to reinforce the measures and standards currently in place so as to prevent attacks in the future.
