Caught on Camera

Two weekends ago, students reported thefts of a whopping 13 laptops and two iPads along with an assortment of other personal items from their dorm rooms. Following the uncanny and sudden uptick in these types of incidents, the Student Life Committee of the UC voted unanimously to support an initiative to install security cameras in dorm entrances. The Committee's support of this initiative is contingent on the fact that the cameras be used exclusively for retroactively identifying and pursuing perpetrators and not for disciplining students.

Given the rates of crime and theft on this campus, likely a function of its urban setting, installing cameras in entrances to dorms and upperclassmen houses is a worthwhile endeavor. The Harvard University Police Department reports that about 90 laptops are stolen on campus each year. That close to 15 percent of this yearly total has been reported over the span of one weekend suggests that the situation is not improving and may in fact be worsening. Like the Student Life Committee, we only support this initiative if the cameras are not used to surveil students in the entrances of their dorms, but if HUPD believes that more cameras could aid in recovering stolen items, this is a good triage measure.

That said, we also recommend more responsible and active efforts on the part of students to pursue other strategies that prevent crimes from occurring in the first place. In eight of the recent incidents, victims of thefts had left their doors unlocked or ajar, an irresponsible move that renders students susceptible to theft but could be remedied easily at no cost.

Unfortunately, it seems that the UC is falling into a pattern of trying to overstep the administration’s power to solve all student problems. Recently, the UC caused a stir when it asked the administration to allow students more time to create their Harvard Key accounts, a process that takes mere minutes to complete and has been available to students since November. In that scenario as in this one, we find that the UC is pandering to students at times when it should be instructing them.

Indeed, students have agency in these situations, and neither they nor the UC should feel entitled to too much help from the administration. HUPD provides extensive literature that instructs students on how to protect themselves from crimes like these, and the advice echoes what should seem, on many counts, like common sense. Installing security cameras at dorm entrances certainly makes sense, but in this case, we would prefer to see the UC use its clout to instruct students to help themselves, rather than only focusing on administrative solutions.