Across the country, universities are urging students to lock their dorms after two brazen sexual assaults on a Toronto campus. But there is fear that some students are still missing the message.

On Sept. 7, two young men gained entry to a locked York University student residence. Inside, the pair entered the dorms of two sleeping 19-year-olds, then sexually assaulted the occupants; each was alone in her unlocked room. Police do not know how the men entered Vanier House, which restricts entry to residents. Once in, the perpetrators, who remain at large, were able to enter as many as six unlocked dorms, as they moved from room-to-room, searching for victims.

Across North America, university administrations have policies in place to warn students living in residence halls to "lock up." Often, campus security repeats that message in targeted lectures during orientation week, in guidebooks created for new students, on notices posted to bathroom doors, and in inscriptions on the swipe cards used to gain entry to residences. One U.S. college even sends crime prevention officers -- detectives with campus police -- into the university community, to coach new students to lock their doors when they go to the bathroom or to sleep, and to be alert to "tailgaters," who follow students into residence halls.

"They make a big deal about locking the door when we arrive," says Amanda Meadows, a first-year student at the University of British Columbia, who lives at the Totem Park student residence. During orientation, Meadows attended a house meeting at Totem Park, where the issue was raised, heard another warning from her resident adviser, then picked up a "rape whistle" -- and got another warning -- from an RCMP booth set up on the Point Grey campus. Still, some Canadian students are tuning out the message.

"There are posters up, but I don't know what they say; I haven't read them," says Stephanie Parisotto, in her second year at UBC. "It's one of those things you hear all the time," admits Jessica, an 18-year-old UBC student from Calgary. "I'm like: 'Yeah, yeah.' " Jessica never locks up -- even before going to sleep. "It doesn't cross my mind to lock the door; I know the people on my floor." That's a risk Alex Ivey, 19, says she would never take. "But some kids forget," Ivey says. "They've been out drinking; they walk in, close the door, and go to sleep."

Many students are away from their parents' homes for the first time; initially, they're unprepared to be on their own, says officer Matt Bowman, of the University of California at Santa Barbara campus police. "They're trusting or forgetful, and tend to treat their dorm room as a bedroom." Partly to address this concern, U.C. Santa Barbara student residences will soon scrap their keys in favour of a system with key-card entry and automatically locking doors.

To Alex, a first-year UBC student who asked that her last name not be used, the open door policy is about comfort: "It's wanting to treat res like your home, and your floormates like your friends." After class, Alex routinely props her own door open, inviting her floormates to stop by. But even comfort has a limit. She always locks up before bed.

Print Article    Send to a Friend    Write a letter to the editor

Digg this Stumble It!   Post to del.icio.us Seed Newsvine   Share on Facebook Technorati links