In late March WSCA voted on the issue regarding the Delaware Police Department should be given access with ID cards to student dorms.

In this election, 47.5 percent of the student body cast ballots. That is the highest percentage of student voters in a WCSA election in at least three years.

While much of that must be attributed to the aggressive and serious campaigning of the WCSA candidates, we think this is an issue about which students are particularly passionate.

It was clear in the town hall meeting regarding this issue that the students who care most are those who are not interested in giving DPD keys to their residences.

While the decision made was the correct one, we believe the percentage of students against this proposal would have been even higher than 58.99 percent if the issue was further debated in public. WCSA said they would schedule another town hall meeting to discuss this issue, but it never happened. This caused the issue to die down significantly. The only information given to the student body before the election was an email from WCSA representatives Joey Yost, Shannon Hopkins and Sharon Rymut advocating the policy to allow DPD to have key card access.

This is unacceptable. WCSA should have sent another email giving a differing opinion, or sent an email simply stating the issues, without any recommendation. So while the debate could have been more robust, the student opinion remains clear: nearly 60 percent of students are against the policy.

However, we are not insinuating that an understaffed Public Safety department is not an issue that must be addressed. We have the fewest Public Safety officers when compared to peer colleges, along with the fewest dispatchers. Having this few Public Safety officers on duty does not only affect the student body.

Bob Wood, director of Public Safety, said his officers are put in danger because of the lack of officers. The most reasonable solution to solve this problem is to add more officers and dispatchers to the department. The administration should not sidestep their obligation to make sure students are safe by allowing DPD to roam the campus.

It is also important to reiterate the point that Wood and Russ Martin, chief of police, could give no particular instance in which a situation became out of hand because DPD officers were stuck outside while responding to an emergency.

Their insistence that the horrible massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech should change students’ minds is absurd. Columbine is a high school, which had police officers on duty, and did not in any way restrict access to their building. At Virginia Tech, the shooting occurred on the academic side of campus. DPD would not need swipe cards to respond to something similar taking place at Ohio Wesleyan.

Exceptional communication is the most important characteristic of keeping an entire campus safe from a massacre like Virginia Tech. They should continue to improve their emergency response system, and add more staff to Public Safety.

There is also no harm in giving DPD the phone numbers of Residential Life staff. They are responsible for the well being of students, and could easily open a door for a DPD officer if a Public Safety officer is tied up with an emergency situation.

DPD swipe card access is not the answer.