Security concerns at Robin

The security department started the student ambassadors program in the 2008 spring semester at the Auditorium Building, but the position has yet to expand to the Gage building or the Schaumburg campus.

Some students at the Schaumburg campus said the added security would be a welcomed change.

Renee Repenning, elementary education major on the Schaumburg campus, said she would feel safer with student security walking the hallways.

"I don't think this campus is high risk, but at the same time people said that about NIU," Repenning said.

In 2008, a gunman killed six people and 22 others were shot on the campus at Northern Illinois University.

Repenning said she feels better when there are people walking around campus. Sometimes she feels uncomfortable being alone in the hallways, she said. But the student ambassadors program would add more people in the hallways.

Another Schaumburg student, Charise Dillon, psychology major, said she didn't really think it was needed.

Dillon said Schaumburg campus is safe already, but it wouldn't hurt to have extra security.

Shazia Sarwar, chemistry major, said she doesn't think there is a need for student security on the Schaumburg campus and raised the issue of cost.

"The campus' security that is around is pretty good . . . [the student ambassadors program] will just cost more money," Sarwar said.

Maureen Froncek, director of campus safety and transportation, said it was possible that the program could move to other buildings related to the university.

"I think we're reviewing [the student ambassadors program] to see how we can improve it," Froncek said.

Froncek said she wanted to look at the program and decide what to do over the summer.

Besides adding the program to the Schaumburg campus and the Gage building, Froncek said she was thinking about adding a laptop to the second floor emergency texting information table in Fainman Lounge..

The program hires work-study students to be a part of of the security department. The students patrol the halls of the Auditorium building in shifts.

The Torch reported last semester that the department hired about 70 students to fill this position.

Froncek said she likes the program because it means there are more people observing the hallways.