By Mehrunnisa Wani

“It’s possible,” said Lieutenant Tyrone E. Forte in response to whether he thought someone could enter York College’s campus with a counterfeit ID.

And it was.

For over a month, the Pandora’s Box editorial board flashed counterfeit IDs to security officers at all entrees, including the library entrances where security officials were intermittently placed.

The counterfeits were digitally manipulated so that male staff members had pictures of females plastered on their IDs and vice versa. The names and signatures were handwritten in lieu of the typed font on the authentic IDs.

The names on the IDs were of infamous gangsters, serial killers, outlaws, robbers, and the late Chandra Ann Levy, an intern involved in an extra-marital affair with a US-representative and whose disappearance sparked nationwide media interest. Names that appeared on the IDs: Al Capone, The Zodiac Killer, Jack D. Ripper, Bonnie Parker, and Chandra Levy.

And while few people deny that security on college campuses is an important concern, interviews with students and the experiment conducted by the staff of Pandora’s Box have proven that anyone can gain entry to York’s campus.

In the wake of the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting rampage when an emotionally disturbed man fatally shot 32 fellow students before killing himself, the City University of New York activated CUNY Alert, a system that was designed to alert subscribers to any news alerts related to activity on CUNY campuses.

Here at York, campus security responded by building two exterior public safety booths at a cost of $39,976 and implemented a “100% ID check.”

According to the public safety office website, security would no longer check ID’s at the indoor locations and there would be two officers placed in the outdoor public safety booths. But as anyone who has entered the campus over the past semester knows, on many occasions students have been asked to show ID’s twice—once outside and then inside.

And sometimes not at all.

Apart from the experiment conducted by the newspaper staff, testimonies from York students revealed the ease with which anyone can get onto the campus and how ineffective the “100% ID check” has proven to be.

“I don’t think the ID check is efficient,” said Oneil Harford. “You just walk by with a quick glance, its not very effective. I’ve gotten in here, sometimes, with a BJ card to be honest with you.”

Other students remarked on the inconsistent nature of how the ID check is implemented.

“I don’t feel safe at all,” said Tasia McLeod. “On Saturdays they don’t check IDs but every other day they want to go hard to check IDs. Sometimes if you go through the front entrance they check IDs, if you go through the back they don’t. You could write any name on the sign-in sheet. I know I do.”

McLeod added that she would be less annoyed if there was a less arbitrary system in place.

“If you want to check the ID’s, either check all IDs or don’t. Don’t be halfway,” she said.

And yet some students who were interviewed suggested that there should be more thorough ID checks.

“When I came in—just minutes ago, I saw the security guard busy talking to another guard,” said Steven Leone. “I think they should check each student individually. They should be patted down each to check if they have any knives or weapons.”

The need for the recently constructed security booths, which contain heating and cooling systems for the winter and summer months, is still being questioned.

“I’m not sure of the purpose of the 100 percent ID check outside,” said Jonathan Quash, a professor and director of the Men’s Center. “If the goal is to simply have a checkpoint closer to the street, then it works. But I’m not quite sure of the reason for moving the checkpoint to the booth, it doesn’t seem to change anything.”

Forte defended the move to construct the booths as a security enhancement, which gives his officers a capability to expand beyond their surveillance beyond the desks at the entry points to the campus.

“There is more of a presence out on the street,” Forte said. “It allows the college to be a little more open, especially in the plaza area to where if something happens out there, there is a officer that can readily respond.”

Forte also went on to explain that at this point, until we move to a more technical method of entry here where officers won’t just be looking at visual IDs, we will continue to have problems with people accessing campus without proper identification.

“If its not a good counterfeit, we’ll spot it,” said Forte.