Hillsdale College campus security has a new source of entertainment, if they wish to watch the vast ridiculousness of Hillsdale students: skipping around the quad, making epic faces while running about Biermann, or becoming entangled in a PDA on the couches in the lobby of the Suites.
Over the summer, Campus Security updated its surveillance camera system to better monitor campus activity. The measure was taken for the safety of students, faculty, and visitors of the college. However, the new addition is concerning, and doubts have been cast about whether or not the college really trusts the integrity of the students.
Every Hillsdale student remembers signing the Honor Code during freshman orientation, pledging to remain “honorable in conduct, honest in word and deed, dutiful in study and service, and respectful of the rights of others.” The Honor Code is a unique commitment between students and the college: the college won’t offend our adulthood and humanity by babysitting us constantly, as long as we live up to the high expectation of acting like responsible adults. The college trusts us on our honor to live according to this pledge and doesn’t surveil the campus obsessively .
But the cameras are always watching. If the college trusts its students to live according to such high standards of honor, why would Hillsdale monitor our every move?
Quite simply, they aren’t.
There are no cameras in the classrooms, offices, or dorm rooms. The cameras aren’t there to track students’ movements. They aren’t there to stop students from having any fun. They aren’t there to watch and to judge.
According to Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé, the video footage is most commonly used as an investigative tool. Looking back at video surveillance has helped solve many incidents of theft and vandalism in the past. In addition, the video monitoring system should help a new system of hardware alert staff of possible security breaches, such as open doors or windows after hours.
And the cameras are nothing new. campus security installed cameras around campus to monitor activity 10 years ago. The upgrade on the system was chiefly a replacement of old cameras, not the imposition of a new program.
The cameras do not violate the trust between college and student. Hillsdale does not spy on us to violate our privacy and act as Big Brother. The cameras simply enable the security team to do its job in the most efficient way possible.
But even if the cameras were there to monitor student activity, the college would still be within its rights as a private institution. In choosing to come here, we all agreed to live according to Hillsdale’s internal regulations. The college can do what it wants with its property. If students object to Hillsdale’s exercise of this power, they do not have to stay.
Thankfully, we attend a school that values both liberty and privacy, and trusts us to exercise those freedoms with due honor and integrity. So next time you’re going to run around the quad in your Superman cape, go for it. You might make some student monitor’s job a little more entertaining.
