In response to the spike in crime on campus this fall and community concerns surrounding the lack of safety on university grounds, DePaul will begin requiring identification to access the upper floors of the DePaul Center, starting Oct. 2.

In a statement sent Sept. 25, DePaul President Robert Manuel announced that all students, staff and faculty will be required to carry DePaul identification with them on both the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses, and Public Safety will have the right to ask for identification at any time. 

“We want you to know how much we share your concern and will not tolerate these crimes that continue to occur on campus,” Manuel said in the statement. “We are actively pressing the mayor and elected officials for responses to help us in this effort so that we can get immediate support.”

If someone cannot provide a DePaul ID, Public Safety officers now have the ability to remove anyone from a DePaul building who is not “faculty, staff, student, invited guest or welcomed visitor.” To mitigate the risk of racial or ethnic profiling, Public Safety officers will be required to undergo additional sensitivity training. 

DePaul will require members to show their IDs to access floors above the lobby in Loop buildings. To access the DePaul Center in the Loop Campus must present a DePaul ID or be a registered visitor. Stricter regulations will be enforced for the John T. Richardson Library in Lincoln Park where a DePaul ID or valid government ID is required for entry. 

The DePaul Center includes the Loop Student Center, dining hall, Barnes and Noble and the Driehaus College of Business.

In previous years, DePaul required students to show ID during 24-hour finals hours at the library. 

Discussions around making DePaul a “closed campus”— a campus requiring students and employees to “swipe” into buildings, circulated last year after an attack in the spring on multiple students. 

Columbia College and the University of Illinois at Chicago, both schools with major footprints in the city, are closed campuses. 

DePaul is also getting additional security guards on campus, and increasing security staffing during overnight hours. 

CPD has approved an increase in patrols in Lincoln Park. 

DePaul is working with rideshare companies Lyft and Uber to provide “subsidized rides” for students, as well as securing supplemental vans to increase the capacity of the safety escort service.  

The university  is also making improvements to the lighting in Sheffield Parking Garage and planning on upgrading the lighting along the El tracks and in the Lincoln Park quad “in coming months.” 

Housing and Residential Life will also begin additional safety-centric programming. 

Alderman Timmy Knudsen’s office released a statement on Sept. 25, stating “I reiterate my call to Mayor Johnson, and soon-to-be-confirmed Superintendent Snelling, to focus on community policing and properly staff our police districts and beats in the 43rd Ward.” 

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that students will only need to show identification to access above lobby levels at the DePaul Center in Loop campus starting Oct. 2.