The Most Watched Building On Campus.

The Leavey school of business has the most cameras on the interior and exterior of any building on campus. When I first visited the school, I assumed that this was because it was a new building, and that Santa Clara wanted to start implementing more security cameras.

I was able to actually sit down and talk with the building manager for the Leavey building, and there actually are a few very interesting legitimate reasons behind the amount of security compared to the rest of the campus.

When the building was still under construction, the school got a little bit ahead of themselves and started to move in some furniture before their camera infrastructure was all set up. This, very unfortunately, resulted in the stealing of chairs over the course of about a week. These were no ordinary chairs though. The school splurged on some really nice ergonomic chairs that ran in the ranges of $100-$1000 each. Thieves ended up getting away with $20,000 worth of furniture. Yes. Furniture. Isn’t it just great hearing about how well your tuition is being spent?

Anyways, this heist isn’t the only reason behind the cameras. The building, most likely due to its location on the edge of campus, sees a lot more unwelcome visitors when compared to other buildings on campus. Whether it is homeless people coming in and trying to take food, or inebriated students attempting to vandalise the building after a night out in the hut, the building seems to be much too inviting to people who do not belong there.

In order to combat all of this, there are (at least) four cameras on the ground floor, and then three on the second and third floors. There are cameras pointed at all of the entrances and exits, stairwells and study rooms.

So, is all of this security necessary?

Well, in this journalist’s opinion, yes, very much so. To be honest, I really thought that the level of security present in the business school was the norm around campus. Now that have gone and done some investigation of my own, I can safely say that the cameras are being put to good use. While it may be very easy for the cameras to be abused, I feel that their increased presence in the business building is necessary. I was really expecting the most watched building on campus have a lot of cameras looking in really odd places, however, it seems to be as though every placement is well thought out and quite logical.