Published: November 19, 2009

On Nov. 12, a man was arrested for attempting to trespass on the second floor plaza entrance into McMahon Hall.  “He attempted to accost the guard on duty… the guard on McMahon Hall desk came to the [plaza guard’s] aid,” said Thomas Mahony, Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s (FCLC) security duty supervisor. Luckily, the man was apprehended and removed from campus by the 20th precinct of the New York Police Department. No one sustained injuries.

How did the on-duty McMahon entrance guard manage to react so quickly to a colleague in trouble? The new security monitors showed the situation at hand, in high definition.

As Leon Yhap, a McMahon entrance guard, explained in Laura Chang’s article, “New Security Monitors at FCLC,” on page 4, the old monitors were only capable of showing a single location at a time. The new system allows for “one screen [that] displays all locations and [they] are monitored simultaneously,” Yhap said.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when the new, flat-screen monitors were installed. The library is too expensive to keep its normal operating hours, but new televisions are being installed? Not to mention the lavish landscaping makeover the entrances to FCLC received in recent weeks. Keep in mind that Fordham officially ranked number 33 on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s list of private universities costing $50 thousand or more per year. Tuition is going up; are we getting our money’s worth?

We should understand the reasoning before jumping to costly conclusions. According to John Carroll, Fordham’s assistant vice president of safety and security, the screens were accounted for in last year’s fiscal budget. It was a good move.

In the wake of the Fort Hood tragedy just a few weeks ago, we must comprehend the importance of tools to aide in quickly reacting to scenes of possible risk. The use of walkie-talkies alerted Kimberly Munley, a Fort Hood police sergeant, to the presence of mass shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. Within minutes of the call, Munley took down Hasan. It’s impossible to know how many lives Munley saved with her actions, but her work was invaluable.

The screens seemed frivolous before it was fully realized how useful they actually are. In spite of the initial cost concerns, the monitors proved their value on Nov. 12. Something that could have turned into a very dangerous situation ended quickly and peacefully.

Fordham, we’re still skeptical about how much money seems to go toward flowers lining the entrances to FCLC, but you get our stamp of approval (for whatever it might be worth) for the decision to purchase the new monitors. It is always better to be safe than sorry.