The University of Hawai'i will be adding $1 million worth of improved lighting around the 330-acre campus, will unveil a new upper-classmen dorm with heightened security and is asking for 25 new people for its police force following a series of dormitory crimes this year.

UH is asking the Legislature for $933,000 to pay the salaries of the additional security officers, who would augment the current, unarmed police force of 41 officers, five sergeants and one captain who patrol the campus in Toyota 4Runners, golf carts and on bicycles.

In addition, crews are checking to ensure dorm locks are working as officials continue to make small and big changes to the Manoa campus following dorm break-ins, a subsequent sexual assault and male intruders confronting female students as they showered.

Mike Kaptik took over his job as UH's director of student housing services just before the school year began and has since been dealing with concerned parents here and on the Mainland about the series of dorm-related crimes.

Kaptik talks to the parents about their child's specific security issues and then talks to the students about what can be done.

"You want the students to feel safe and secure," Kaptik said. "Part of that means trying to promote student responsibility."

The new Frear Hall for 808 upperclassmen, however, will feature swipe-key technology and individual bathrooms inside student suites. Incoming sophomores get first priority for rooms in Frear.

Closed-circuit television cameras will monitor exterior doors, elevators and maybe the laundry rooms at the dorm, Kaptik said.

Next door, the four Hale Aloha freshman dorms will undergo $26.2 million worth of upgrades, including new locks and swipe cards, and renovations to turn the two-shower, two-toilet, two-sink communal bathrooms into four bathrooms that can be individually locked.

MORE OFFICERS NEEDED

Last semester, UH officials hoped to create a new Honolulu police substation on campus or at least get two off-duty Honolulu Police Department officers to patrol the campus every night from dusk to dawn.

When HPD officials killed the idea, UH officials tried to get state sheriff's deputies to fill in but the Department of Public Safety could not spare even off-duty officers, UH spokesman Gregg Takayama said.

"They're stretched to fill their own patrols," Takayama said. "So that was a no-go. Both ideas are dead."

While campus police are trying to get more officers from the Legislature, campus security chief Neal Sakamoto also wants more students to apply for jobs as community service officers to escort students to their cars or dorms.

Sakamoto acknowledged that students often have to wait for an escort to arrive. Dispatchers have been reminded this school year to call back the students if the community service officers are busy helping others and will be delayed.

Sakamoto only has four or five student workers while similar-sized campuses employ 50 to 60.

"Some nights the calls are constant," Sakamoto said. "Every five to 10 minutes we'll get a call. We don't have enough student workers."

Last year, some officers, dispatchers and student community service officers were confused about the escort policy, Sakamoto said.

So this school year he clarified the policy to state that students do not have to be alone to receive an escort.

"If it's two females and even two males ˆ… if they don't feel safe, they can still call us," Sakamoto said. "But we'll still get to the students who are alone first."

Students can call 956-8211 or use any campus blue-light phone to call for an escort.

LAX SECURITY

While UH officials work on manpower, mechanical and other issues, many students yesterday said they still feel safe on campus and in their dorm rooms.

Chaslee Ikawa, a freshman from Kihei, Maui, regularly gets calls from home reminding her to be careful.

"So many incidents happening," Ikawa said. "My mom says, 'Be careful, don't wander around at night, and make smart choices.' I tell my mom not to worry. I'm safe."

But any new security and dorm improvements will continue to rely on students, who last week admitted to letting strangers into their dorms, propping their bedroom doors open and failing to heed other common sense security warnings.

There are security signs, posters and fliers all over the four Hale Aloha freshman dorm towers on the lower campus. But outside the towers last week, freshmen Carrie Anderberg said female students last semester duct taped the bathroom lock on Hale Aloha Ilima's fourth-floor communal bathroom to keep it open.

They finally opened it up with a screwdriver and broke it for good, Anderberg said, leaving it broken this semester.

TIPS TO STAY SAFE

Students are counseled if they show lax security such as propping open doors that are supposed to remain locked, Kaptik said.

"As we become aware of students doing things, we will address them both with our staff and our students," he said. He urged students to let officials know about others breaking locks and propping doors open.

He added the university does not have the manpower to check for students leaving doors unlocked or propped open "every hour, 24/7."

In the latest incident, 48-year-old Eldon Paul Cox pleaded not guilty last week to misdemeanor first-degree criminal trespassing and petty misdemeanor harassment after he was arrested Jan. 29 for allegedly following two UH female students from Japan to their Hale Noelani dorm.

Unlike the freshman dorms, Hale Noelani is an open walk-up style building where people can freely go up to students' rooms and peer into windows.

"Anyone has the ability to knock on your door," Kaptik said.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.