Newsletter No. 36

No36 November 1992 CUHK Newsletter • What is the major threat to the campus population then? • Definitely theft. According to our records there were 54. cases of theft on the campus during the six months from October 1991 to March 1992. • What kinds of property were stolen? • They ranged from personal belongings such as wallets, Walkman, and bicycles to University property like PC terminals, computer software, staplers, and fax machines. Sometimes even telephone sets and economy light-bulbs. • Is there any possibility that those who are supposed to keep them in safe custody have stolen them? • Our investigations reveal that in certain cases, the culprits are very likely to be ‘insiders' . Members of the campus community are on the whole not fully aware of the important role they can play in the p r even t i on of such crimes. They tend to be slack in keeping University or personal property safe, thinking that the responsibility lies only with campus security guards, which is not a very practical attitude. The best and most expedient way is for everyone to be a security guard. People should never leave handbags and wallets unattended. They should lock up drawers and doors when leaving the office, be strict with the distribution of keys and their duplicates, strengthen control over the lending of office equipment, and install additional security gadgets to protect valuable items. If people are alert and careful, crime on the campus can be reduced. • What measures has the Security Unit taken to fight such crimes? • More patrolling and more plainclothes security guards to keep an eye on the ‘hot spots'. We also put up notices near the scenes of crimes to alert the campus community and to call on possible witnesses to give useful information about the crime. These are effective measures which have led to the apprehension of culprits. • Who are these culprits? • Some are thieves from outside the campus. But to our dismay, some are found to be students and staff of this university, children of our staff, or employees of our contractors. It's really difficult to guard against such ‘insiders' and that's why I always emphasize the importance of cooperation from all quarters. • Now let us turn to traffic problems on the campus. Can you tell us more about new traffic regulations recently introduced? • Four new regulations have come into effect since 1st October: (1) Vehicles of general visitors and ‘authorized individuals' will not be allowed to park overnight on the campus without special permission. (2) The carparks opposite the University Train Station and the Fong Shu Chuen Building are reserved for students and staff only. (3) A maximum of two university vehicle registration labels will be issued to each staff member with cars. (4) Each student is entitled to apply for one such label only. • What are the objectives of these regulations? And what do you mean by ‘authorized individuals'? • Regulations (1) and (2) aim at solving the problem of insufficient parking space on the campus, especially near the train station. We discover that some persons with no affiliation to the University have been leaving their cars in our carparks for long periods of t ime, sometimes several weeks, and have refused to drive them away despite repeated warnings. The two carparks near the train station have been the most heavily abused. As a result, staff and students who have a real need to drive to work or use the train cannot find any parking space there. We've therefore decided to reserve these two carparks for staff and students only. By forbidding visitors and ‘authorized individuals' to park overnight on the campus, we can improve the turnover in our carparks and increase available parking space. ‘Authorized individuals' refers to persons closely related to the University in a specific way: contractors, suppliers of goods, vendors of school-bus services, or relatives of staff members residing on campus. Their vehicles are allowed to enter the campus and park in non-reserved carparks, though not overnight. Regulations (3) and (4) are intended to rectify the situation whereby ineligible individuals ask someone else to apply for staff/student registration labels on their behalf. Through their implementation we can control the number of cars eligible to use our parking facilities. • But two labels may not be sufficient for staff members who own three cars or more. • We will allow more than one licence plate number on a Never leave personal belongings unattended. 7