Lacking locks
St. Michael's townhouses still awaiting lock installation

Brendan Conroy | staff writer

All the St. Michael’s College townhouses are still awaiting locks for their bedroom doors because a job assigned in the beginning of the year has remained unfinished.

Student Affairs’ view

St. Michael’s Student Affairs assigned the job of installing locks at the beginning of the year, says Jim Farrington, associate director of Physical Plant.

Townhouse residents may soon be adding a new key to their collection. Katie Colleran, photo illustration

Physical Plant, which does maintenance and grounds work at St. Michael’s, was supposed to start installing locks this September, but they have not been following through on the project because they are still waiting on more locks, Farrington says.  

“It was a matter of finding a supplier,” he says. “We used to have a local supplier, but they went out of business.”

Farrington says the lock system they are waiting for is very complex.

“We need to code all the locks,” he says. “It’s a lot of planning.”

The school needs to find a key track to include a master key. A cheap lock system from Aubuchon or Home Depot would cost about $7, the ones St. Michael’s will use cost $75, Farrington says.

At the cost of $75 a lock, times four rooms per townhouse, the project will be expensive. In total, St. Michael’s is spending $30,000, almost the price of one person’s tuition, Farrington says.

Originally the townhouse program did not call for locks on bedroom doors. But after thefts last year, some students thought it was time to install them.

“It was a demand from a few last year,” Farrington says. “But everyone wants them this year.”

Student Association president Alex Monahan says he came up with the idea, spoke to vice president of Student Affairs Mike Samara about it, and Samara agreed to put the plan into action.

Security’s perspective

Peter Soons, director of security says the installation of locks will definitely be an enhancement. The school wants to bring all townhouses up to standard, he says.

With the present townhouse doors, students can lock themselves in, but cannot lock others out. Alex McIntire, photo

Until the locks are installed, students should make sure they are locking the main doors to their townhouses, Soons says.

“We continue to fly the flag that you have the responsibility to lock your property,” he says.

Security put out a bulletin in late August warning people to lock their residences and not to prop doors, Soons says.

Although students are making a push for more security in the form of locks, thefts have actually gone down. The total number of theft complaints went from 64 three years ago to 45 last year, Soons says.

Many of these reported thefts are thefts of opportunity, and
they could have been avoided, he says.

Students' standpoint

Though he initiated the process of installing locks, Monahan has not had a big role since then, he says.

“Since having talked to Mike [Samara] I haven’t been in the process,” Monahan says. “So I don’t know about any complications.”

Monahan and his roommates bought their own locks for safety purposes. They all went out to the Home Depot at the beginning of the school year, bought cheap locks and installed them on their own, senior James Sorrentine says.

“Last year we knew a couple of seniors who had things stolen from their room, so we took the initiative to put our own locks in,” Sorrentine says.

Senior Rory Kelleher analyzes the current condition of his door. Alex McIntire, photo

Senior Rory Kelleher lives in a 300s townhouse and does not have a lock on his bedroom door. His biggest concern about not having a lock on his door is that his room is not secured, Kelleher says.

Kelleher says he had not had anything stolen from him, but he does know girls who had stuff taken from their townhouse a few doors down.

“If you have parties most of the people you know are trustful,” Kelleher says. “But you know there are one or two sketchy kids that aren’t going to respect your stuff.”

Sorrentine feels much more secure about his belongings this year with a lock on his door than he would have last year, he says.

“Nothing’s gone yet,” he adds.