Signs, cameras to be added to Kerckhoff for extra security

The undergraduate student government is considering adding cameras and signs on the third and fourth floors of Kerckhoff Hall to increase security after hours.

Anees Hasnain, Undergraduate Students Association Council community service commissioner, said she is looking into adding cameras to the third and fourth floors of Kerckhoff in response to past incidents such as burglary and hate speech.

The council approved the addition of several signs to denote that the space on the third and fourth floors is used for student offices and is designated for UCLA affiliates to help deter people unaffiliated with UCLA from roaming the halls.

If approved, the new cameras would be installed on the third and fourth floors near the entrances such as the elevator and stairs, said Roy Champawat, director of the UCLA Student Union. The only cameras currently in place in Kerckhoff are located in and around the study lounges and near areas of retail for security purposes, Champawat added.

The signs would allow building administration to clarify that the floors in Kerckhoff are for student groups and UCLA affiliates, and would help dictate which people would be allowed on those floors, he said.

The signs will soon be in place, Champawat said, as soon as the language of the signs is drafted and legally appropriate. There are currently only signs located in the study lounges, he added.

The new cameras would cost between $7,000 and $10,000, which the Associated Students UCLA operations will pay for, he said.

The cameras will only be installed if the student groups on the upper floors want them, Champawat added.

“We do not want to make the students feel uncomfortable, and would like to work with the students according to what they feel will make them feel the safest and most comfortable,” he said.

USAC drafted a questionnaire and intends to distribute them to student groups with offices on the upper floors of Kerckhoff by Thursday, said Cynthia Jasso, chair of the USAC Finance Committee.

The questionnaire asks for insight from the students that work on the third and fourth floors, and will help determine whether or not the cameras will be put into place, Hasnain said.

Though the questionnaire is finished and ready to send out, Jasso said it is difficult to get a hold of certain groups because some new groups are not aware that they even have offices in Kerckhoff. This is because of changes in the Organization Space Allocation Committee which determines where student offices are placed, she added.

Hasnain said she has experienced situations where she felt uncomfortable because of people who don’t seem affiliated with UCLA roaming the fourth floor where her office, and many other student group offices, are located.

“I don’t feel safe … (Kerckhoff) should be the safest building on campus with so many student organizations housed here like USAC, the Daily Bruin, (the Graduate Student Association) and the multitude of other (student) organizations that work in this building,” Hasnain said.

Manuel Negrete, a second-year mathematics for teaching student, said he hasn’t had any uncomfortable situations in Kerckhoff when he has been in the office of Bruin Partners, a one-on-one tutoring program that works with middle school students in Mara Vista and Culver City.

Still, he said he thinks the cameras are a good idea because he often leaves his scooter in the group’s office.

Gabrielle Deocares, a second-year human biology and society student, said she has not had any experiences where she has felt unsafe in the Bruin Partners office, but also thinks the cameras would be a good idea.

USAC will decide whether or not to add the cameras in the coming months based on the responses from the student questionnaires, which are due Feb. 15, Jasso said.

Email Yancey Cashell at ycashell@media.ucla.edu.

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