During the daytime, students are used to walking into Suffolk’s buildings and seeing a campus police officer or security guard keeping watch from the lobby. But what happens when the students leave for the day, and the city gets dark?

Suffolk’s police keep watch over the dormitories every minute of the day, making sure the students who live there are secure. Academic buildings, on the other hand, are only monitored “continuously” according to Suffolk’s website. All entrances are monitored 24/7, according to the website, but it doesn’t say if a security guard is always on watch.

As long time late night wanderers of Suffolk’s Donahue building, Journal staff members have noticed the police booth overlooking the building’s lobby is only sporadically staffed in the early hours of the morning. Inside, a handful of students work on the fifth floor and a few custodians fan out across the building, cleaning in silence — and isolation.

What is Suffolk’s policy on monitoring academic buildings, and why are there spans of time at night when security guards are not present? Even with security protocols like locking doors and monitoring Suffolk’s properties on closed circuit video, nothing replaces the comfort of knowing a professional security guard is watching over each of Suffolk’s academic buildings — and their late-night occupants — at all times.

If Suffolk’s resident students can go to sleep knowing their buildings are monitored throughout the night, then students and staff working late into the night deserve that same security.