A report on campus safety released late last month recommended that some proposed safety measures should wait until final decisions are reached on a campus-wide electronic security system for residence halls.
In its report, the Safety Implementation Committee outlined and assessed steps the College took in the past year to improve campus safety.
Dean of Students Lee Pelton established the committee of administrators and students to evaluate the results of another report issued earlier in the year.
The first report was written by the Task Force on Campus Safety, formed by Pelton in Spring of 1992 in response to a sexual assault which occurred that term. A stranger had attacked a student in her dorm room.
The Task Force released a report listing several steps the College could take to improve safety, including the installation of an electronic access system for dorms.
Pelton formed the new committee to oversee each of the Task Force's recommendations except the electronic access system, a wider institutional change which he decided to review further.
A small internal management group has met weekly in the Office of Residential Life to investigate the costs and benefits of an electronic security system.
The group includes representatives from ORL, the Dean of Students Office and the Department of Safety and Security.
According to Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beauty, the group hopes to finish its preliminary research by the end of Fall term.
"We're looking for the kind of system that provides the level of security that we all want but would be convenient to use," Beauty said.
Matt McManness, executive officer in the Dean of Students Office, oversaw the installation of a similar security system in his previous job at Towson State University in Maryland.
"It was the most complicated issue I dealt with in Residential Life," McManness said. "In the end, it was worth it."
McManness said Pelton plans to convene a larger committee to examine the internal management group's findings and solicit student input.
"The first question that must be answered is whether electronic access is the answer," McManness said. "Student feedback is critical."
The Safety Implementation Committee cited electronic access in the Alumni Gym as a safety success story, stating that thefts, assaults and vandalism in the gym have decreased to almost zero due to the security procedures.
The Committee reported that final decisions on the locking of women's bathrooms and laundry rooms should wait until a decision is reached on dorm security.
The Committee reported that ORL has lowered the fine for providing a new dorm key from $50 to $30, in hopes that students will not be discouraged from replacing lost keys. According to ORL, the reduced fines will become effective Fall term.
The report stated the Department of Safety and Security could not offer a van shuttle service around the clock but would continue to offer walking escorts at all hours.
Safety and Security is requesting a student intern to coordinate the escort program and in the report stated that van service would be improved due to $1000 in funding from the Student Assembly 1994 fiscal year '94.
Students calling for escorts may ask that those escorts be women.
"The Department of Safety and Security is committed to accommodating the request for female walking escorts and also addressing some female students' fears about the male escorts," the report stated.
"Students who call for an escort will be told the name of the person who is coming to pick them up. The escort assigned to pick someone up is known and therefore extremely unlikely to be himself an assailant."
The report stated that to discourage students from taking safety for granted, the Admissions Office will not promote Dartmouth as a safe campus, but as "a safer campus than many."
Hosts for prospective students will attend training sessions to highlight the importance of safety issues to campus visitors.
New procedures already in place include bi-annual publishing of information on disciplinary cases heard by the Committee on Standards; the development of a sexual abuse peer network established in the fall of 1992; and a new Health Resources Department which the Committee recommends should oversee the training of student groups such as Greeks Against Rape.
"In principle, it is a good idea for student groups to present sexual assault and safety programs internally," the report stated. "In practice, such programs will only be successful if they are based on expertise and a willingness to open groups and organizations to external criticism."
