Creating a more welcoming campus environment is one of the goals of the University of Hawaii-Manoa administration, one everyone can support.

So it makes sense that UH officials should seek, and lawmakers should approve, the hiring of 25 additional guards for the campus.

That is certainly not the only remedy needed to safeguard a campus that's been in the news for a series of crimes in and around the dormitories.

For starters, campus security will get only about 16 of the 25 positions, with the remainder going to hire enforcement officers for the parking structures and lots.

UH officials should stay on track with the delivery of other repairs and improvements aimed at protecting the students and staff who live and work on campus.

It's encouraging to see, finally, some movement on better lighting in some of the Manoa dark spots.

In the next week or so, students should see the effects of a $1 million upgrade to lighting around the art building, Moore Hall, four science buildings, softball stadium, Les Murakami Stadium and the ROTC parking lot. Sometime around midyear similar fixes are due around the Biomedical Sciences building, East-West Center Road, St. John Plant Science Lab, Gilmore Hall and student health services.

And the major facelifts at Frear Hall and the Hale Aloha towers should be carried out without delay. Students need to see that the UH takes its part seriously: providing timely repairs and new security systems that can protect them.

For their part, students have to take greater care than they've done so far.

Students admit to letting strangers into their dorms, propping open bedroom and bathroom doors and taping over and breaking locks in the interest of convenience, ignoring the security risks.

That behavior has to stop. Student organizations and campus security should warn students against short-circuiting safety rules in this way.

Maintaining a safe campus benefits the UH at large, which makes it the job of the whole university community.