Shaw Students Seek Safer Campus

Concerns about campus security are being expressed by students at Shaw University after a peeping Tom was reported inside a women's dormatory earlier this week.

University officials met Friday and decided to add another third-shift security guard. That increases the number of night security guards to two, but students said that was not enough to make them feel safe.

"I think they should be more strict with security and check IDs for anybody that looks unfamiliar here," said student Kevin Little.

Shaw does have fences, cameras and security guards, but some students said all of those methods weren't enough to keep a peeping Tom out of the women's dormatory. University officials still don't know how he got in.

At Meredith, a private college a few miles away, the view of campus security is very different. Despite the campus' relative openness, 17 security guards provide constant security.

"I feel very safe here," said Meredith student Beth Eastman. "We have security guards everywhere."

Visitors to Meredith must come in the front entrance and have their identification checked by a security guard, said security guard Sherwood Jones. Visitors' drivers licenses are kept by Meredith security and returned when the visitors leave campus.

If a student at Meredith ever needs a security guard, they are only a phone call away. This is a luxury some Shaw students say they don't have.

Shaw students said they would take up the issue of campus security at their next student body meeting which is on Feb. 13.