Several MIT staff members and students were recently recognized by the Campus Police for efforts in campus safety and crime prevention over the past year.
Before giving out the awards at the annual luncheon for MIT crime prevention coordinators on April 13, Chief of Police Anne Glavin summarized improvements that have been made in campus security since the murder of student Yngve Raustein in September 1992. Those changes include more lighting and emergency phones on Memorial Drive, new vans and routes for the Safe Ride program, twice-daily team policing patrols of the campus perimeter with the Cambridge Police Department, the student-run Safe Walk escort/patrol program, and a continuing series of rape prevention and defense programs for women begun over the winter.
Improving security at MIT parking lots and garages is also a priority, Chief Glavin said. Card-key access gates have been installed at the Westgate and Vassar Street lots; the system is operational at Westgate and will begin working at Vassar Street this spring, she said. As a result of a survey and report of Albany Street garage users by Campus Police, Physical Plant, Telecommunications and the Safety Office, improvements to access control, lighting and emergency communications will start to appear there this summer, she added.
Plaque recipients were:
Bob Dankese, Dick Fenner and Paul Bergonzie of the MIT Employees' Federal Credit Union, recognized for its financial support of Safe Ride, Safe Walk, Kid ID and other programs, as well as publishing information about credit card scams in the credit union newsletter.
David Hogarth, senior staff assistant in Information Systems, for creating a crime prevention and notification e-mail list called Crime40 in his building (E40). He created another to include crime prevention coordinators in Buildings E51, E52, E53 and E56 to notify staff of suspicious persons who might travel from one building to another.
Pat White, who regularly included in the Sloan School newsletter, "Strictly Sloan," information about upcoming crime prevention programs as well as tips and trends. She also invited campus police to give "Streetwise and Safe" and office safety presentations.
Graduate students Ken Porter, David Cuthbert, Susan Ipri and Jonathan Baker, for their work in managing and improving Safe Ride and Safe Walk. Safe Walk, which began a year ago as a supplement to Safe Ride, now includes about 40 students who patrol the campus in pairs from 10pm-3am three nights a week. They alert campus police to any suspicious activity or security problems and accompany students walking across campus late at night.
Mr. Cuthbert, a civil engineering student who is earning his degree in transportation planning, evaluated Safe Ride with students from an undergraduate transportation laboratory. He subsequently devised a set schedule for the service as well as improved routing, splitting one Boston route into two. The service is available to all members of the MIT community from 6pm-3am on weekdays and until 4am on weekends. He also developed the new weekly grocery shuttle service that ferries MIT students and employees between campus and the LaVerde's supermarket in Medford. The free, 20-minute ride leaves Building E40 on Saturdays as 11am, noon and 1pm and stops at Senior House, Ashdown House, Burton-Conner House, Tang Hall, Edgerton House and Random Hall before proceeding to Medford. Return trips leave the supermarket at 12:40, 1:40 and 2:40pm.
Certificates of appreciation went to:
Katie Blass of the Safety Office, who was recognized for the efforts she makes at crime prevention during her work all over the campus.
Kathy Spinale, Cheryl Smith, Liz Mulcahy and Rachel Pearl, for making Building 20 more secure by having a combination lock installed.
A version of this article appeared in the April 27, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 30).
