UPDATED 5/14/24: Residence Hall Security — you asked, we answer!
Security monitor desk in a Southside Unit building lobby
During the April 30, 2024, SafeBears Safety Webinar with UC Berkeley Administrator Russ Ballati, current and prospective parents had questions about residence hall security. SafeBears has contacted campus administration for an update on this important safety topic, and we will share their response.
Update May 14, 2024: Please see below updates from the administration, including: Security fencing coming to Units 2 & 3!
👉 👉 Here are the security measures in place as of May 2024:
The Southside dorms (Units 1, 2 and 3, Blackwell and Martinez Commons) have lobby security monitors scheduled to control access in each building daily from 9pm to 1am weekdays and 1:45am weekends. The monitors, called Residential Safety Ambassadors (RSAs), are student workers. At all times, access to the lobby, and to the elevator and stairwell, is controlled by key card. On the residential floors, bedroom doors lock with a physical key. Some buildings have suites, with an additional locking door into the suite.
The north campus dorms (Foothill and Stern) and the Clark Kerr Campus buildings do not have RSAs. Instead, members of the Community Service Organization (CSOs) patrol the grounds until 2:30 or 3:00am. CSOs are students who are trained and supervised by the UC Berkeley police department, known as UCPD. (CSOs also provide the SafeWalk walking escort service from dusk until 2:30am.) Similar to the Southside dorms, Foothill, Stern and Clark Kerr have three tiers of secured entry and access for buildings using a key card and/or physical key, according to the Berkeley Housing website.
Parents & guardians, if your Bear might be interested in becoming a CSO, go here for more information.
👉 👉 Residential Life and Facilities are currently working on the following security enhancements, which SafeBears has asked for updates on:
Expanding RSA service hours; The administration said expansion remains “a possibility, but no decisions have been made yet.”
Placing RSAs in Foothill & Stern; In cooperation with student government, administration is currently exploring options for an RSA program at the north campus dorms. They did not make any commitments and did not share a concrete timeline for when a decision would be made.
Erecting security fencing around the Southside Units, beginning with Unit 2. Security fencing is coming to Units 2 & 3. The administration said:
“Regarding security fencing, we can share that we are in the planning stages to build gates at Unit 2 and Unit 3 in the coming months. The Unit 2 gates are currently in the bidding process, and the Unit 3 gates are in plan review. The current schedule includes construction on both gates beginning this summer. We will share more about the specifics of this project as details are confirmed.”
👉 👉 We also asked whether there are any plans to expand the RSA program to Clark Kerr Campus; No, not at this time, because the CKC “layout is too broad and disparate for RSAs to be appropriate without a major change,” administration said.
… and about what steps Residential Life is taking to ensure RSA coverage begins on day one of the new academic year. Administration wrote: “We do plan to proactively promote and recruit for the RSA program this summer, and we anticipate having adequate RSA staffing in place for August. Already, we have approximately 35 new RSAs in the HR processing queue.”
Parents & guardians, if your Bear might be interested in this on campus job, go here for more information.
👉 👉 Finally, we asked about security in the shared bathrooms in the traditional residence halls: for example, if Residential Life plans to (1) provide locking doors into the hall bathrooms (the doors are currently unlocked) and (2) enhance privacy protections for shower and toilet stalls where necessary.
(1) Administration wrote: “We have previously explored the possibility of having locking doors for the bathroom entrances; historically, this has not been well received by students who don’t want to take their key to the bathroom (and even leave their dorm room door open). We can engage students about this possibility again and see if sentiment has evolved.”
(2) Most hall bathrooms have shower stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors and dividers, but a few do not, and SafeBears asked about the possibility of retrofitting those few. Administration wrote: “We have no plans to change them at this time because it would require major bathroom renovations in order to meet code requirements. … We want to create upgraded showering compartments when a more comprehensive update of the bathrooms is completed.”
Parents, please reach out to us at contact@safebears.org if we got anything wrong or if you have information about dorm security that would be useful for us to know. The security measures currently in place will never work perfectly, but if they are consistently failing, we want to hear about it.
As always, thank you for your partnership and support . . . and Go Bears! 💙 💛
