EDITORIAL: "The Enemy Within?"

Each entrance is manned by security guards and card readers and electronically-controlled turnstiles to prevent unauthorized entry. For an extra measure of safety, every exterior door in the Quad requires a special key distributed only to residents. Individual rooms have both key locks and deadbolts. Since all of these security measures were implemented, students in the Quad have felt relatively safe, if somewhat cloistered. Except for the occasional bike thief who might scale one of the gates on the Quad's south side, residents felt their property was relatively safe too. Until now. Within the last four days, two students have had thousands of dollars worth of property stolen from their Quad rooms without any sign of forced entry. Both claim their doors were locked and bolted, although one student said his window was open with the curtain shut. At this point, there are many questions and very few answers. Are the burglaries related? Will it happen again? Is it an inside job? Does someone have a copy of the master key? What would happen if the thief entered a room when someone was still there? Property is one thing . . . people would be quite another. We don't want to promote paranoia, but we would like to urge caution. We recommend students take extra care to safeguard their valuables, and guard each other by looking out for any signs of suspicious activity. We also hope the University will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of both students and their property, either by catching the burglar or burglars, or by finding ways to secure students rooms.