ASUI endorses Dorschel’s request for increased campus security
Although the University of Idaho campus and the greater Moscow community are relatively safe places to live, work and attend school, UI Executive Director of Public Safety and Security Matt Dorschel said emergencies sometimes do happen, and the university needs to ensure it can respond effectively.
This is one of the reasons Dorschel hopes to install 291 security cameras on campus, as well as alarm systems and an operations center, he said in his address to the ASUI Senate Wednesday evening.
Matt Dorschel
Dorschel said the ability to have an increased awareness of the campus and surrounding areas could help the university security team do their jobs more successfully in potentially dangerous situations.
“Right now, we have the minimum standard of security systems,” Dorschel said. “We have no security camera coverage on the core of campus. The primary system we have is in the housing area, and that’s it. My goal is basically to improve our awareness when things occur.”
Dorschel’s proposal requests a one-time cost of $305,000 with a recurring annual cost of $250,000. The funds would go toward implementing the system, as well as maintenance and paying salary and benefits to two employees whose positions Dorschel hopes to add to monitor the proposed operations center.
According to Dorschel, the funds would come exclusively from internal re-appropriation, and students would see no hike in their fees to support the program.
The ASUI senate voted unanimously to support Dorschel’s request in a resolution authored by Sen. Rachael Miller and Sen. Taylor Willey. Miller said she ran her election on campus safety, and when she was elected, one of the first things she did was reach out to Dorschel to open a line of communication about funding security cameras and infrastructure.
She also said she reached out to the risk managers of every sorority on campus, and each one expressed support of the resolution on behalf of their chapters.
“I was excited to get behind a resolution that could help promote a safe campus and influence the possibility of such funding from administrators of the university,” Miller said.
Willey said he believes ASUI’s decision will impact the university’s decision regarding Dorschel’s proposal, and said student support for Dorschel’s request is a step in the right direction.
“We live in a safe area, but that doesn’t always mean things will be safe,” Willey said. “The safety of our students is very important to me, and although these funds haven’t been approved yet, we are taking the right steps in order to improve our campus for its students.”
Dorschel has already moved forward exploring heightened security on campus, and said he had an external consultant come to the university last year to recommend the best locations for cameras on campus.
“If we can get eyes on a situation, awareness is the No. 1 thing and No. 2 is enhanced response,” Dorschel said. “When we do know something’s wrong — someone’s violating a law, trying to get into a closed facility, we get a report of gunfire — we can determine whether that’s real or not. We don’t want to create chaos, but if we have cameras in the right places, we could confirm that.”
Dorschel said the intent of the cameras would never be to enforce campus policies. His job, he said, is safety and security. If the first phase of security camera implementation is successful, he hopes to expand the program.
“Some of our peer institutions spend upwards of $1.8 million on security systems,” Dorschel said. “My initial request was to cover the primary facilities on campus … Sometime in the future, I may submit another request for more.”
Hannah Shirley can be reached at [email protected]