On Wednesday, April 24, an intruder came into the University Center. The man walked through the turnstiles behind a student who had swiped in using their ID card. He came into Room 314 at 5:24 p.m., where The New School Free Press class was in session.

At the time the class professor went to get security during the incident, there was only one guard at the desk. The guard had to wait for another guard to come to the desk and relieve him.

In the past seven years, five unwelcome visitors have found their way into the New School campus buildings, according to Thomas Iliceto, director of Campus Safety. The Free Press reported on a past incident of an intruder on campus, on Feb. 27, 2018, at the 6 E. 16th Street building. (For the full reporting on this incident, read “Trespasser Grabs Student’s Groin, NYPD Not Called.”)

Iliceto came to the Free Press on May 1 for an on-the-record conversation about security measures and policies.

Iliceto was accompanied by Amy Malsin, senior director of communications and public affairs at the New School. Students who experienced the strange man entering and exiting the classroom had lingering questions about the frequency of similar occurrences, how to best handle the situation and how to improve overall campus safety.

Malsin said of the incidents: “In the past several years, the university has taken a number of important steps to make our campus safer, including the addition of electronic turnstiles in our buildings, upgraded camera systems and alarms, and emergency response training.”

One imminent answer to a campus security breach is the New School Safety App, which was released last August. This application that anyone can download the app, install and use it from their phone, given they have cellular connection or WiFi. Two functions include “Call 911” and “Call Campus Safety” to instantly report unsafe situations and emergencies. There is a chat with Campus Safety feature, as well as a map of the New School’s campus.  

The app has been downloaded 1,236 times, Malsin said. It has not been used to report any security incidents yet.

“Providing a safe environment for our students, faculty, and staff is a responsibility we take very seriously. The incident last week was and is of great concern to us, and we recognize that even though no one was physically harmed, any disruption of a class by a stranger is frightening and upsetting,” said Malsin.

Currently, there is no mandatory security training for faculty at the New School.

The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

How did the “visitor” get into the U.C?

Unfortunately, in this particular instance, our technology failed us. We had a student who walked in, presented her I.D card, walked in through [a turnstile], the arms stayed down and this gentleman walked in right behind her.

Are you required to alert the campus of what happened?

We do make alerts to the campus by way of New School Alerts if it is a major instance. In a case like this, the answer would be no.

How do you determine what is ‘an extreme emergency?’

Everybody is different in how they perceive something. Anybody who is here that doesn’t belong here is an emergency enough to leave [the desk] and come up here to see what we have.

How do you characterize the level of threat? Like an active shooter versus a mentally unstable guest?

Well, obviously from an active shooter to unstable, they are very different. Everyone is going to handle a situation differently. My folks are trained to not confront, to find out what’s going on, to see if this is something that could just be solved with, ‘You have to come out with us. You’ve got to get out. You’re not supposed to be here.”

So how can faculty and students make that differentiation?

An active shooter, it is something that takes place, very quickly. Very methodically. The big difference between an intruder sitting in a classroom and an active shooter. An active shooter is looking to come in, and do. That is everything I have read on, been instructed on, trained on, for the last many many years. So we will know the difference right away. And so will the people in the room.

Does security work with any student health faculty on campus to provide what to do after a situation where an intruder comes into the room? Are support services communicated with your personnel or is on the students to find help?

Any major incident that involves a student, we usually contact the support staff at the school to let them know and they will reach out individually to see if any follow up is needed to their office.

Can you assess what went well and what went incorrectly?

Technology failed. I watched the video 30 times. It did fail. The professor going down to get the guard and the guard coming up on the timer is about two minutes. I wish my technology would have worked better, I wish it would have. I wish he was only in here for 6 minutes but he was in [the building] for 20-something, before we could get him out. I need to figure out what we can do better.

I think the technology is secondary, and the personnel is the first issue here. Not spotting it initially and visibly at the front desk, and their reaction. It was more human than technological failing.

When the young lady went through, after she checked her ID, the arms of the turnstile went down, and they remained down for a couple of seconds longer, and the man walked in right behind her. Alarms will ring when you don’t check your id and walk through. There was no alert made because the arms were down. I am working with IT folks to see if we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

What else are you going to do to improve security since this has been happening more frequently, three times in the last year and a half? Should faculty have mandatory training?

We do make it so that it’s offered. We are trying to get it as part of the “on-boarding,” so if you are coming to work here, you fill out a bunch of paperwork, and we’re trying to get training to be a part of that requirement.

In a class like this with no service, the wifi barely works, the phone is all the way over there, [front of the classroom]. Is there a chance that classrooms like this could have panic buttons? Is there a type of open dialogue for students to talk with security about any kind of new ideas that they have?

Email me and let me know you have an idea. I’d be more than happy to take it up, if there’s something we can use, I have no problem.

What if we cannot access the [Campus Safety] app?

We’re getting into a little bit of ‘what if?’ questions. ‘We have somebody that comes into the room, what are we supposed to do? We have no wifi, we can’t call out,’ is that where we’re going with it?

Yes.

Ok, we have somebody sitting in the back of the row. I’m trying to play a scenario in my head, I really don’t want to get into the ‘What ifs?’ because this is very, very difficult to answer.

Tell us how we should have handled [our situation]

If somebody’s sitting in the back of the room, and everyone’s sitting in here, we’re uneasy about what it is…… Let me pose a question: What’s the easiest thing for you to do? We can’t use the phone, the easiest thing to do: Try to get through the door.

Our generation, right now, violence brought to a classroom doesn’t exactly feel like a ‘what if.’ That’s why those two minutes can feel like twenty minutes. We see it everywhere, it sinks in. If someone’s sitting in the back of the room, with a weapon you don’t know about, there are 30-plus students, who are trying to rush out the door, not everyone can get out the door. How often is security updating their training in an era where ‘what if’ is a reality?

I can tell you on a weekly basis one of the emphasis is on the most important task, being at the front of all our buildings. It’s repeated over and over again, they get it at least once a week. When these things happen and the questions that you ask, I take back and we incorporate it into our training.