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SECURITY ‘PERPLEXED’ OVER MISSED CALLS

Eyeopener Staff

Ryerson security is looking into how a student reached an answering machine instead of the emergency line after being threatened with a box-cutter.

Mike, a civil engineering student who asked not to use his last name, told the Eyeopener last week that he called security 11 times after a man confronted him outside Jorgenson Hall.

When asked what number he called, he confirmed it was extension 5040, security’s general information line. Still, school officials are at a loss as to what happened.

“We’re absolutely perplexed,” said Julia Lewis, associate director of campus health and safety. “We record every call that comes in.”

She also said that neither the general information line nor the emergency line, extension 80, leads to an answering machine. Security manager Lawrence Robinson could not be reached for comment.

Lewis would not speculate as to whether students are not familiar with how to reach security in case of an emergency. The school currently has “dial 80” stickers on most campus phones, as well as advertisements promoting the extension in student handbooks, she said.

When there is an emergency on campus, Lewis recommends students call security before the police.

“Police always call us. There’s lots of information security needs to provide before [the police] get there,” she said.

She also said students would get a response “within minutes.”

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