UMW students raise alarm over broken security systems

by JENNA ROBERTSON

Staff Writer

For some University of Mary Washington students, concerns about campus safety have centered on something as simple as a door.

At the Eagle Landing Garage, students have reported that doors that normally control access to the garage have remained open for weeks. At the UMW apartments, students have also raised concerns about doors that do not close or lock properly, as well as reports of an unfamiliar person entering a residential building.

While students have long been aware of these concerns, several said they had not received direct communication from the university or UMW Police about the situations.

The Eagle Landing Garage doors were affected by a storm before all students had returned to campus, according to UMW Police Chief Michael Hall. 

“We’re working now to correct that, to try to fit things in place with generators and things like that,” he said. 

Police increased patrols around the garage and monitored cameras while the university worked to correct the problem.

Stephanie Clark, a junior psychology major who lives in Eagle Landing, experienced problems with the garage doors firsthand when she tried to leave the garage with a friend. 

“We had difficulty getting the door open and had to use another side of the garage,” she said. “If an emergency were to happen, no one could get out.” 

Clark called the UMW Police non-emergency number on Aug. 16 to report the problem. She said, “They just opened both doors instead of just having one door open. Because for a while, it was just people going in and out of the same door.”

Since then, she said the doors have remained open.

She also said students pay for parking and that leaving the garage open makes her question who can access the building. 

“I’m paying almost $400 for a parking pass in there when people, like, random people, are just parking up there,” said Clark. “You kind of just have to hope and pray that no one’s in there, I guess.” 

Aliya Ather, a junior physics and chemistry double major who lives in Eagle Landing, said she had noticed that garage doors requiring an Eagle One scan appeared to be open more often than usual.

“I mean, now that I know that the doors have just stayed open for the past like three weeks, I feel a bit uncomfortable,” Ather said. 

For Ather, controlled access to the garage is part of what makes students feel comfortable leaving their vehicles there. 

“I feel like it gives a sense of safety that is for the students and no one else can get in, so you don’t have to worry about anything happening to your vehicles,” Ather said. 

The garage concerns come as some students have also been discussing an incident involving an unfamiliar person entering the UMW apartments. 

The person reportedly approached a student’s apartment and presented themselves as someone encouraging students to apply for jobs and interviews. The student did not engage with the person, left and contacted the police. 

According to Chief Hall, the person was not an FBI agent or other law enforcement officer, despite what some students had heard through word of mouth and social media. 

UMW Police reviewed camera footage, identified the person’s vehicle and later identified the individual. Hall said police spoke with the person and barred them from all university property for a minimum of four years.

Hall said a student held the residential building door open for the individual. UMW Police strongly discourage students from allowing people they do not know to enter residential buildings. 

“Think about your residential hall as your dorm room, said Hall. “When you’re at home, your front door is the front door to the building. And your bedroom door would be your residence hall here. So use that mindset that, ‘Hey, is someone in your family going to open your front door and let someone come back to your bedroom?’”

Haley Smith, a junior biology major living in the apartments, questions why students seem to be hearing about the situation from each other instead of from university officials.

“It seems concerning that this is only being talked about amongst students, rather than anybody in charge or from the police themselves,” Smith said.

Communication from administration to the student body is a common concern among students.

Colin Lewis, a senior computer science major, said he learned about the apartment situation through Yik Yak rather than an official university message.

“There just hasn’t been any communication from the school about it,” Lewis said.

He said relying on social media can mean students miss important safety information.

“Even on Yik Yak, it’s easy to miss stuff and if you just didn’t check it for like a day or two, you could have just missed this,” Lewis said. “When it’s definitely something that should have been at least one email, probably a couple, being like, ‘Hey, we know about this. We’re planning to do something about it.’”

Hall acknowledged that communication could have been better. He said officials initially did not believe a broad message was necessary because the garage issue occurred before the majority of students returned to campus.

“I was looking at the broader community instead of the narrow community, which I’ll take the hit for,” he said.