SAN DIEGO CA Sept 3 2020 — San Diego State University has hired a private security company to look for COVID-19 policy violations on campus. It comes as students are getting ready for their second week of classes.

“Sounds a little crazy,” freshman Leah Carpenter said.

The university has seen 32 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March. The most recent case was reported two days ago.

“I honestly think that an increased security presence on campus isn’t the answer,” freshman Skaidra Pulley said.

Pulley said she chose to be an Aztec so she could be close to her family. Her grandparents are high risk so she said she does everything she can to follow the university’s policies on social distancing and wearing face coverings.

“I think that if students are willfully disobeying safety procedures and regulations, security is not going to change that,” she said.

Fox 5 talked with Dr. Luke Wood, vice president of student affairs at the university, Sunday. He said the private security firm will patrol campus and the area surrounding it.

“Really just trying to identify anything that would be either a COVID-19 violation or health and safety violation. We’re doing an immediate identification followup,” Wood said.

He said once information from the private security company is passed on to his office, further disciplinary action will be taken.

“We do a direct followup and the range of what that followup could vary from — notices to suspensions even expulsions in extreme cases,” Wood said.

Wood said his office has already issued notices and warnings this weekend but he couldn’t disclose if any students were suspended or expelled.

Pulley said she believes taking such drastic security measures may backfire.

“I honestly believe more security won’t change that. It might just make campus feel less comfortable for everyone else,” she said.

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