<p>Here is a link to an interesting article:</p>
<p>[Ridgecrest</a> South to add cameras | The Crimson White](<a href=“http://cw.ua.edu/2011/02/13/ridgecrest-south-to-add-cameras/]Ridgecrest”>http://cw.ua.edu/2011/02/13/ridgecrest-south-to-add-cameras/)</p>
<p>This is a very proactive approach to security. The first priority is to keep the students safe</p>
<p>Yeah, I saw the cameras going up this morning- 2 cameras are being installed at the ends of each hall. The cameras should hopefully reduce the ungodly-annoying fire alarms that’ve been plaguing the dorm…</p>
<p>Let’s hope they deter both the alarms and vandalism.
This is a very important security step. I spoke to housing recently and they are beefing up patrols as well.</p>
<p>Has their been other-than-usual vandalism problems there?</p>
<p>@kansas–do you live in this dorm? How do you like it, apart from the fire alarms? ;)</p>
<p>my daughter and her friends like it with the exception of all the fire alarms!</p>
<p>There were several incidents with vandalism as cited in this article:
[Vandalism</a> continues at Ridgecrest | The Crimson White](<a href=“YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White”>YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White)</p>
<p>It just takes a positive preemptive approach such as the university is doing to make sure that this is nipped in the bud. Students who know that they are on camera will be less likely to act in a stupid or rash manner.</p>
<p>This in no means infers that the majority of students would behave this way. It is just a few students acting very badly. However, this approach helps assure that all property and students will remain safe.</p>
<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>These cameras will prevent some of these college crazy behaviors. </p>
<p>I read somewhere that at some colleges, some kids were pulling fire alarms late at night to see if a former boyfriend/girlfriend was “entertaining” a new love in their dorms. The “jealous ex” would pull the alarm and then wait to see who came out of that dorm. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>The problems in that dorm have been outrageous, and actually they’ve been ridiculously slow in addressing anything. The estimated damage total is approaching $10,000 for one floor, and only one person has been kicked out of the building. There have been witnesses seeing intoxicated males peeing in the halls, verbally abusing, vandalizing, and even one case where a few girls came out of the shower to find a drunk male student in their living room uninvited. I don’t live in the dorm but my girlfriend does, and there have been times where she has been scared to leave her room, and the RA’s have been completely useless, and it took the UAPD being called for anything to happen. The RA on the floor has a problem where she is letting these students get exceedingly drunk in their rooms with no punishment, and they know it since she seems to want to make friends. </p>
<p>The fact that they’re putting in cameras helps, but that article also says that anyone who is now caught committing any crimes cannot be charged with previous damages, which is going to be spread to everyone living on the floor.</p>
<p>wow, what floor is that?</p>
<p>seems that they could distribute the charges to those who have room damages as well.</p>
<p>my daughter and her roommates have no damage at all. it stands to reason that the ones causing the damage to the floor would also have damages to their individual rooms.</p>
<p>or charge it to the RA who wants to be cool and do nothing.</p>
<p>is the trouble with honors kids or non-honors kids?</p>
<p>non-honors for the most part.</p>
<p>BTW, if you plan to live in Ridgecrest South, I’d recommend you to avoid the first and second floors if you live in the honors side. The (very common) fire alarm pulls, when activated on the non-honors side, automatically trigger the opposite side of the building for the first two floors. The top three floors, however, are triggered separately. Guess where I live?</p>
<p>well then that limits the “good” honors floor the floor 3 since 4 and 5 are non honors.</p>
<p>What is the arrangement for damages in a dorm’s common areas? Do all the kids on the floor have to split the damages? Is this typical of most universities these days? I am not familiar with the practice from my college days.</p>
<p>Do you mean like in a suite’s living room? I think those costs might get split. We’ve never had a problem with that. </p>
<p>I imagine that if one roommate caused damage in a living room and it was immediately brought to the attention of the RA, then the cost would be put on that one person. But, if no one says anything and “check out day” comes and then people start pointing fingers, then the RA would just divide the responsibility.</p>
<p>My kids have never had any trouble. We did have to pay $10 (not bad) to fix an area on our son’s bedroom wall where his bed and “messed up” the paint.</p>
<p>Oh, so these costs are just related to suites then? I was reading all this and thinking that damage to common areas in dorms such as hallways, bathrooms, etc. were being charged to all the residents on that floor. I’m wrong, right?</p>
<p>If there is damage to the common areas, then some of that just gets absorbed by reserve funds because there is an assumption that there will always be some damage done somewhere. </p>
<p>I do not think that the students who are in that dorm are going to get a building-wide assessment because no where in their contract states such a thing is possible. </p>
<p>Installing the cameras will put a stop to much of this childish behavior. And, if someone does anything, the cameras will catch them and they will be kicked out of the dorm and billed for expenses.</p>