In the Sept. 7 edition of The Daily Collegian, there was an article entitled 'Residence Life to take precautions.' The last portion of the article mentions a plan to allow University Police officers to patrol the floors of our dormitories.

While those of us living on campus respect the police and recognize the need for their presence to ensure our general safety, allowing officers to patrol our dorms is unacceptable.

The university continuously stresses the importance of forming a strong and unified community on campus, yet somehow they believe that having officers of the law patrolling our private residences will help to foster this sense of community.

Ever since the assaults occurred in Mifflin Hall, the Office of Residence Life continues to take more and more drastic measures to keep intruders out of the dorms.

Unfortunately, having policemen watch our every move is not the solution we seek.

Do the police patrol the floors of off-campus apartments, houses, or other private residences? Obviously not.

Then why must those of us on campus be subjected to this sort of privacy invasion? All that will come of this is paranoia and fear among dorm residents.

If we wish to develop a friendly and stress-free environment on campus, we cannot do it by having law enforcement officers walking through our hallways and scaring the residents into submission.

Dorm life should be a pleasure, rather than an ordeal characterized by fear and the sacrifice of our rights to privacy.