Did you forget or lose your key to your dorm?  Never fear, Campus Safety will come and open the door for you as soon as they are done giving out a handful of parking tickets.

Have a book handy because you might just end up being there for awhile.

California Lutheran University students can speak for themselves when it comes to Campus Safety problems.

“It takes them way too long to open up any of the campus buildings for you. You have students waiting outside for a long time for them,” sophmore Genessis Palacios said.

Students will most likely see Campus Safety either cruising around campus or giving out parking tickets. What else do they do?

“I feel like campus security focuses too much attention on parking and I think there’s more important matters out there. They shouldn’t be called Campus Safety, instead they should be called parking police,” senior Luke Gheta said.

Students and faculty need to know what Campus Safety really does during their time. Currently, there is an increase in complaints about Campus Safety not doing their jobs.

Tyler Grant, Campus Safety’s operations assistant, offers a general idea of what Campus Safety does during their time.

“They are trying to promote visibility on campus, so they drive around and check to make sure everyone is in compliance with the vehicle codes. We help people that have their cars broken down and provide jump starts, unlock doors and other safety issues,” Grant said.

In addition to day duties, Campus Safety gets busy during the nighttime.

“In the evening, their normal protocol is to go and lock up the entire campus once the classes get done,” Grant said.

Fred Miller, director of Campus Safety, a former FBI employee and CLU alumnus, talked about the different duties that Campus Safety must do for the campus and the students of CLU.

“Campus Safety is like a small police department. There are priorities; they could be tied up with escort, resident life, investigation, injury or an accident,” Miller said.

Students pay a lot of money for school and some of the tuition goes toward different departments that benefit us, including Campus Safety. Students make up the university and should be prioritized because without students, there is no university.

University matters should always be given priority over any matters that may be happening off campus, for example, if there is a student parking in the neighborhoods near campus.

There can be exceptions such as the investigation of a threatening man with a gun down on Moorpark near school. That man can possibly get to our campus and hurt students.

However, let’s face it. Thousand Oaks is quiet and safe.

The most action we got is when students were stuck on the ferris wheel during Homecoming 2012 and were helped down by firefighters.

According to Miller, Campus Safety can’t get to students right away because of the limited budget. There are only two officers on each shift and they have other duties to attend to.

Miller emphasized how the campus has expanded over time with the addition of the new buildings on the north side of campus, like Trinity Hall and the Swenson Center. This means that Campus Safety officers have more buildings they need to secure than ever before.

Campus Safety focuses more on attending the needs of faculty and staff. If a professor needs a classroom door unlocked, that would be higher in priority than a student who needs his or her dorm room unlocked.

“We aren’t putting you off on purpose. We just have other priorities to do. The goal of the school is to educate the students. We do make an effort to get there as fast as we can,” Miller said.

Over the years, CLU has expanded  and we are currently building a new dining commons. Does this add another building to lock down so Campus Safety will take even longer to get to you? There needs to be another alternative for Campus Safety to get to students’ needs faster because this university is only going to get bigger.

Dalee Jung
Staff Writer
Published March 12, 2014

CLARIFICATION:  Two Campus Safety officers are on shift at a time and only official Campus Safety officers have access to keys to open locked doors on campus. Campus Safety student workers do not have access to keys because of privacy and safety issues. Campus Safety student workers are trained and assigned primary enforcement of the parking regulations on campus, thereby freeing the Campus Safety Officers for safety and security issues, including unlocking and locking of rooms. Parking enforcement is not a primary duty of the Campus Safety Officers. Other questions and concerns about Campus Safety can be directed to the non-emergency line at 493-3208.