Hartley Grove is the newest halls of residence the University offers to students. Therefore one would perhaps rather naively assume that they would be the most secure. This however does not seem to be the case.

 

In the past two weeks a ground floor room was broken into – fortunately the resident was out. The assailants got in through the window and stole amongst other things a computer, TV and stereo. Several cars parked both at the front and rear of the halls have had their windows broken and items such as stereos stolen.

 It concerns students especially girls that they are placed in ground floor rooms of halls of residence as they are an obvious target for break-ins. Most other universities have a policy of not placing females in rooms on the ground floor. Friends of mine who specifically asked at open day’s about the policy of Southampton were told that females were “where possible” not located on the ground floor. Why then are there certain flats with a majority of female students and last year there was a whole flat of girls on the ground floor????

 Hartley Grove is a building with access codes and they do seem to be changed regularly, but perhaps not often enough. I think that in this academic year they have been changed at most 4 times – but is this really often enought?? A worry that is shared by students and parents alike is the length of time the door remains open for after someone has entered the code or walked out. A resident can type in the code, walk through the door, and be half way up the first flight of stairs before the front door closes, yet alone locks.

In general students would welcome CCTV in the halls of residence grounds. They would also like to see an increase in security patrols with dogs as has been evident on campus. All this has done is moved the security problem from the main campus to the halls of residence.

Residents would like to see all lights in the halls of residence grounds to actually be working. The lights on the side of South Hill C Block that light the pathway between Hartley Grove and the Chamberlain JCR Bar and Common Room area have been broken since October. I personally have reported that they’re broken about 6 times, and I know other residence have too. It’s even been mentioned in JCR meeting, but has anything been done – no don’t be stupid; we're charged an arm and a leg to live in halls and yet nobody listens to complaints or ever does anything that will cost money to ensure students and their property is secure! Do the university actually care about students security and safety in the halls of residence?? If they do, can we please see some positive signs of improvement.

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