UBC students’ personal information stolen in break and enter

UBC has announced it’s replacing locks and increasing security patrols following a recent break and enter at its Vancouver campus, but students say they’re still concerned.

The university says some students’ personal information was taken during the break in at the Thunderbird building, leaving many anxious.

The information taken from these students includes their name, room number, photo, and date of birth.

Michael Lu is a third year UBC student who doesn’t live at Thunderbird but used to. He currently lives at a different residence building on campus. Lu says the theft has him worried about how the school stores personal information, including his own.

“I don’t get how someone could just walk through and steal important files,” said Lu. “Just shocked that my own school didn’t protect my own info.”

The school says the theft, happening at the building’s front desk, was discovered Monday morning. It says key cards and contract cards containing personal information were among the items stolen. The University RCMP says a man in his thirties, who is not a student, was arrested shortly after. While some items were recovered, others are still missing.

Andrew Parr, Associate Vice President of Student Housing and Community Services at UBC says this isn’t something that’s happened before.

“I’ve worked at UBC for literally decades and a break in like this is unprecedented,” he explained.Related articles:

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“The unit door locks are being changed across the system, that’s many, many hundreds, of those locks that are being changed so it takes a bit of time…We have extra patrols on site, for the personal safety of our residents, and working very closely with campus security.”

On Jan. 11, contractors were present at Thunderbird, which houses mainly upper-year and graduate students. Residents didn’t want to speak on-camera because of safety concerns, but told CityNews they’re worried.

The schools says it understands those concerns and is looking at making changes in light of the incident.

“We’re a safe campus and this is an unusual and unprecedented situation so let’s use this as an opportunity to say, ‘let’s review our processes, our security protocols and what not, and enhance them as a result of this,'” Parr explained.

The University RCMP says the man arrested has been released with a court date – but it’s still unclear what’s happened with the students’ personal information. Lu hopes UBC takes steps to help make students feel more safe.

“I’m just a little bit disappointed in my school itself just because they have very important info reserved in the front desk, where it’s not protected that well, ’cause clearly someone can walk by and take it,” he said.