As UNLV classes resume, students greeted by enhanced security at Beam Hall

A light breeze flows through UNLV’s Frank and Estella Beam Hall early Monday morning as students mill about, some waiting anxiously outside classroom doors while others type away at laptops on the nearby benches or tables.

Second-year students Carlee Brooks and Kailyn Lemus laugh together under the shade of Beam Hall’s courtyard area as they wait for their morning class together — their first at Beam Hall in almost a year.

Though the fear they have from an active shooter incident last December still lingers, the students were excited to get back on campus and see their friends.

“It feels weird for me because my boyfriend, his class was in this building when it happened, so it was a lot … (and) literally, before that had happened, we were talking about, like, ‘Oh my gosh, UNLV is so safe, I love it here,’ and then that happened,” Lemus, 19, said. “(But) I was counting down the days to come back. I know it was something that was really hard, but UNLV is gonna keep us going.”

The first day of fall classes was Monday, with an expected record-high number of students enrolled, according to university officials. It’s also a big time for UNLV as it continues to recover from the Dec. 6 shooting and solidify its status as a top-tier university.

About eight months after an active shooter killed three professors and wounded another in Beam Hall, the building has been repaired and reopened for the fall semester with $2.5 million in enhanced safety measures.

Cameras have been added on some floors, a security guard is now stationed on the first floor at a UNLV-branded desk, and phones with large screens hang off the walls of every classroom. Those phones are big enough to catch the attention of any student or teacher when they blink during an emergency.

On the first floor, students will immediately notice the security desk. The desk will be staffed with a private security officer in a yellow vest the entire time Beam Hall is open, and students can approach the officer should they have any safety concerns.

Individual security officers are patrolling floors throughout the building and its exterior as well, allowing “people that are attending this building or in this building occupying it to have a direct pipeline to us in the form of radio communications,” said Arnold Vasquez, interim director of University Police Services.

It’s a difference in safety that the students can see and feel, Brooks, 19, said.

Both Brooks and Lemus said they liked the addition of security officers — referred to by campus officials as “yellow jackets” — posted in Beam Hall and patrolling the area.

But Brooks also wishes these sorts of protections could have come before the Dec. 6 shooting.

“I feel more safe, but it’s still in the back of your head,” Brooks said. “It’s like, why couldn’t they do this before? Why do they care about us after?”

Brooks and Lemus were not in Beam Hall during the shooting, but they had friends on campus when it occurred. Lemus’ boyfriend knew some of the professors who died.

The students said their lingering anxieties from the shooting pushed them to take what they hope will be precautions, like scheduling classes early in the morning. They reasoned it was better because fewer people would be on campus the earlier a class was.

UNLV President Keith Whitfield, in an interview with the Sun on Monday morning, said the university was constantly looking at ways to improve safety. In addition to spending $2.5 million on enhancing Beam Hall’s security, the university has allocated another $1 million to add lighting around the campus so students can “feel safe coming through” campus, Whitfield noted.

He also mentioned that there was a committee of faculty, staff and students drafting a final report on possible security enhancement strategies.

The report is said to contain solutions and guidance on areas like who is responsible for communicating about emergencies, Whitfield explained.

“We’re looking at not only some of the physical infrastructure, but also policies that go along to make sure that if an incident happens, we react and respond in the best way we can,” Whitfield said.

Brooks and Lemus aren’t letting their reservations negatively affect the upcoming school year, though.

When they each woke up this morning, the girls rushed to text their friends, throwing around questions of where everyone had classes, what time they’d be done and which students had classes closest to each other.

They’re already planning lunchtime outings and meetups on campus, as well as getting ready for upcoming meetings for their respective clubs. As freshmen last year, they didn’t have much knowledge of the campus layout and decided after the Dec. 6 shooting to explore the area in case another emergency happens and they need to escape.

The girls are looking forward to discovering even more of UNLV this semester.

Brooks and Lemus, who both grew up in Las Vegas, said returning to UNLV this year was natural with all the help they’ve been given, academically and socially. From the free gym for students to supportive professors, the students said they’ve come to appreciate all the university has to offer, even in the shadow of last year’s tragedy.

“I didn’t understand at first because I grew up here; I was like, why would anyone come to UNLV, I’m going here because it’s free,” Lemus said. “But being here really makes you understand that it’s a strong school. I could actually see why people would come across the world for a school like this. … I didn’t understand it because I was from here, but I get it now.”

 

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