In the past two weeks, there have been two burglaries on the UH Manoa campus.
And yesterday, a student reported that a man on a moped tried to grab her.
Many students and even professors are saying they don’t feel safe on campus.
We spoke with one professor who is now sleeping in his lab, to make sure his classroom and materials are safe.
"You can see there’s not a whole lot too these. We came into work the other morning and saw a few doors reduced to splinters and found missing equipment and computers," points out William Chain, a UH Chemistry Professor.
UH is investigating a burglary that targeted two offices at Bilger Hall Thursday night.
Similar to a burglary that happened a week earlier at Saunders hall, where six computers were stolen.
"This building like many others is completely open by design or lack of maintenance. We’re vulnerable all the time," says Chain.
Professor Chain said the entire community is vulnerable, when this chemistry building, full of hazardous materials is so easily accessible.
"There are a lot of gnarly things in this building, and believe me, computers are the least of our concern, of what you want to see disappear from this building," Chain adds.
Just walking down the halls, you can see signs of deterioration and disrepair.
"This is the security door. You couldn’t lock this is you wanted to– it’s completely rusted to pieces."
And he says after dozens of thefts and reported problems, he has not seen any change.
"Students need to feel safe, students need to feel like they’re getting what they need, students need to feel like they are learning in buildings that aren’t falling apart," says Chain.
Conditions that lawmakers say need to be addressed.
"The university has adequate funding to address the basic infrastructure, and it’s just a matter of prioritizing correctly," says State Representative Mark Takai.
As the university finalizes it’s biennium budget, he hopes regents and administration would make safety a top priority
"In light of some of the things that happened, there’s been some discussion of whether we need to get a little more hands on," says Takai.
"How many computers does it take, how many people have to get hurt, or worse, before somebody does something," says Chain.
We spoke with Chancellor Tom Apple earlier this week and he is well aware of the infrastructure and security problems.
He will be hosting a campus-wide meeting this Monday at noon at Kuykendall Hall
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
