In order to ensure safety on campus, the university has added more surveillance cameras. So, those electronic eyes now sweep across campus rolling even more film.
These cameras will certainly serve as a deterrent. They might even catch a criminal and help the courts carry out justice. No sensible person could argue with a measure designed to increase security and reduce theft on campus and while video surveillance becomes increasingly pervasive both on an off campus, there stands reason to believe that we could find ourselves living in a safer society.
In order to protect their legal right to have surveillance, the university has put up notices at the entrances. They have declined, however, to tell this newspaper where these cameras will be located.
They have declined to notify the student body, the overwhelming majority of whom would never steal or endanger their fellow students, where they might be watched.
In any society, the safety of the populace is vital, especially to those entrusted with the task of preserving that safety. But when that safety comes at the risk of invading the basic rights of the populace, in this case Fairfield University students, serious questions are raised.
Crime on campus would probably be eliminated altogether if cameras were placed in every room of every residence hall and townhouse. That would obviously, however, be over the line. But where exactly is the threshold between the safety of the people at large and the privacy of an individual? These are important questions that should be examined publicly by the security department and the university community as a whole, not just passively notified that there are cameras in operation and they might be watching you.
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