News
Reports of CCTV camera mounted around campus cause initial concern
By Haley Lynch ’17
December 1, 2016
Tags news
On the morning of Monday, Nov. 28—students’ first day back from Thanksgiving break—some confusion spread across campus in reaction to the discovery of several unexplained cameras appearing in academic buildings. Director of Campus Safety Officer Francis Manfredo told The Spectator that the black CCTV cameras were in place for approximately 12 hours in the Sadove Student Center, Root Academic Building, Christian A. Johnson Hall and Emerson Lobby before Campus Safety started receiving concerned calls from community members and decided to remove the suspicious equipment.
According to Officer Manfredo, explained that a subsequent investigation revealed that the cameras “were put up by a student conducting research for a senior thesis.” General concerns for the privacy of those who might be unknowingly subjected to surveillance as part of this research circulated campus, but further inquiry revealed that the Institutional Review Board (IRB)—a campus ethics committee dedicated to supervising research involving human subjects—had reviewed and approved the project. Additionally, Officer Manfredo indicated that although he could not confirm the nature of the research being conducted, citing reluctance to affect the students’ research outcomes, he can confirm that “cameras were located pointing downward towards the recycling bins.” These discoveries, Officer Manfredo told The Spectator in an email, helped “ease any concern [he…] had.”
Chair of the IRB and Associate Professor of Psychology Jennifer Borton was able to confirm that she had played a part in approving this research, which she says is being conducted by a biology student. In response to questions about why the campus was not informed ahead of time of the cameras’ impending presence and legitimacy, Professor Borton explained that although she was not directly involved in deciding whether or not to inform the community ahead of time, her assumption is that the student opted away from that course of action because “you can’t tell people about the exact nature of this project because it wrecks the results—it changes peoples’ behavior.”
Nonetheless, in the wake of Monday’s blip of excitement, the student conducting the research in question was allowed to remount cameras in the same areas on Wednesday morning, accompanied by a campus-wide email from Officer Manfredo to assuage the community’s concerns. Professor Borton expressed some dismay to discover that the email went so far as to specify that “[t]he cameras are monitoring the recycling bins only,” since she believes that this will make the nature of the research too obvious, rendering the results unusable.
Unfortunately, the specific student in question was not able to be reached for comment.
Some of the information in the email did acknowledge apparent concerns that the cameras were originally mounted by Campus Safety for surveillance purposes. Officer Manfredo clarified: “Please do not remove them or be concerned you are being monitored by Campus Safety, we have no access to these cameras… If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email or call me.”
All in all, what seemed momentarily sinister is much more innocuous upon further inspection. For the purposes of a student’s thesis research, the CCTV cameras will remain in place for two weeks, and will then be removed by that student.