With an increase in recent on-campus break-ins and reported larcenies, concerns about campus safety are growing, especially when it comes to student dorms. Throughout the 2012-13 academic year, the number of break-ins and larcenies has risen significantly and are now beginning to spark greater action from the university.

Howard Graves/Old Gold & Black

In an email sent out to the entire Wake Forest community, Ken Zick, outgoing vice president for student affairs, detailed a recent break-in in Martin Hall and went on to announce new security improvements being made to the Reynolda campus.

“We have used every campus resource available to investigate and respond to incidents affecting campus safety and security,” Zick said. Some of the security additions include added patrols to north campus parking lots and residence dorms every night as well as having a larger Winston-Salem Police Department presence in the areas surrounding the campus.

While the administration believes these steps will help, Zick’s statement stressed that they are only preliminary. “Additional improvements to campus security are underway,” Zick said. “The university has approved a new fencing plan for the northern quadrant of the campus. Final details for the fencing are being developed now, but potential features may include a pedestrian turnstile with some high-tech enhancements.”

But while university police and the administration plan a long-term solution to this growing problem, student concerns have magnified in the wake of recent thefts and break-ins.

Some students are even beginning to question the university police’s ability to keep the campus safe. The incident this past weekend at Martin Residence Hall on a Kappa Kappa Gamma hall seems to have been a wake-up call for the entire administration. When a sophomore member of the sorority, who asked to remain anonymous, called the university police on the morning of Feb. 24 in regards to an attempted break-in, it allegedly took more than 20 minutes for an officer to finally arrive on the scene.

“While the new security person stationed near Martin did make a difference in the response time to the suspects, it took campus police over 20 minutes to come to our hall. I feel as if this is completely unacceptable considering the entire window was shattered on the ground level and someone easily could have entered through it,” the student said. She noted that multiple calls were placed to University Police without a meaningful response.

Kappa Kappa Gamma president Caroline Suttle, who was not on the halls at the time of the incident, also expressed frustration about the lack of progress being made in dealing with recent break-ins on north campus.

“There have been so many incidents out in Martin and complaints afterwards that it’s unimaginable that [the administration] have yet to fix this problem,” Suttle said.

In spite of the new controversy, Lesia Finney, University Police sergeant, maintains that the security improvements being made should help the situation. Finney believes that larcenies inside campus dorms have been well handled by university police and that although there haven’t been a dramatically higher number of reported break-ins, the newly announced patrol increases will prevent such occurrences in the future.

“We have a good success rate as long as people call immediately after the event,” Finney said. “The key is to get people to call immediately.”

Finney also noted that charges were filed against the two individuals involved in the Martin Residence Hall incident Feb. 24 evening.

In addition to break-ins, robbery has continued to be a prevalent problem on campus.

In regard to the 124 reported larcenies since August (compared to the 81 burglaries for the entire 2011 calendar year), Finney recommends that students always lock their rooms and refrain from holding the door from strangers trying to enter dorms.

“Being aware of your surroundings is essential,” she said.

Some of the residences most afflicted with larceny reports include Babcock, Martin and Piccolo. David Myers, sophomore and Babcock Resident Advisor, thinks that although more police involvement would help the situation, students must also take responsibility for themselves.

“The most important thing is that students look out for one another,” Myers said.