Campus Security is around to keep students safe, but their presence in the Smith dorm is putting some freshman boys on edge, to the point that some have decided to transfer.
Freshman David Friedlander, who lives on the third floor of Smith, is one of them.
"I am deciding to transfer because of Elon's policies with their strictness, and how they treat students, especially freshman," Friedlander said. "Its hard to feel safe when you have campus security, RAs and the administration in general trying to crack down on you and get you in trouble for reasons that at other schools wouldn't be an issue."
Friendlander and his friend Michael Dellon said they will leave for winter break and not come back. They said that almost 50 percent of third floor Smith is thinking about doing the same, mostly because of the extra security.
"It definitely puts everybody on edge," Dellon said. "We don't feel very comfortable. Whether it be going to the bathroom late at night or just walking around the halls freely saying whatever you want, which is something that you'd be able to do in your home, and they kind of took that from us."
Associate Director of Residence Life Marquita Barker explained the reason for the increased security in Smith is not to make the residents uncomfortable, but for legitimate reasons.
"Unfortunately this semester, in Smith, we've had more vandalism and more behavior that warranted a greater presence of Campus Security," Baker said. "So they did more rounds and just kept an eye on things."
Baker said that instead of transferring, the boys should talk to Residence Life about their problems with Smith.
"I would say that those students should go talk to their assistant director of the area or maybe come to Residence Life and talk to one of us," she said. "We certainly don't want them to feel uncomfortable by Campus Security being there. They're there to help those students, not to make them feel uncomfortable"