– This won’t stand

– The tragedy didn’t have a direct effect on students, but it is important that students feel safe in their flats, leader of the student welfare body The Velferdsting Øyvind Gjengaar says.

He refers to the fact that the accused for murder in the so-called doctor case, Kamel Mellah, was living in one of the student flats at Bjerke. According to the records of The Foundation for Student Life in Oslo (SiO), Mellah is a student. However, according to UiO, he is not.

– The Felix incident last autumn revealed that SiO allowed residents to sublet without producing ID. You should think that Student Housing would improve their procedures after this so that they would be more in control, Gjengaar says in frustration.

SiO cannot check for ID during semester start because students do not get their ID-cards immediately. But the accommodation contracts are renewed every semester, thus Mellah must have signed a contract with SiO for this spring. This would indicate that he has used a fake ID.

Fake ID?

– Making fake IDs is easy, and control procedures are by and large unsatisfactory. It would normally be fine if you give your name and date of birth to prove that you are whoever you pose as, Chief Information Officer Ove Skåra of The Data Inspectorate says.

– If Mellah did produce a fake ID, control procedures have been unsatisfactory. This worries us, Gjengaar says.

Director of SiO Housing Tom Olstad has scheduled an evaluation meeting for today where various measures and procedures are to be discussed.

– I don’t think it is enough only to call for an improvement of procedures, which has been promised for a long time now. When it comes to the fact that the police are issued warrants to search student halls, it is serious, Gjengaar rages.

– We have to review our procedures in a suitable fashion, marketing and development executive of SiO Housing Guri Bergo says.

– The accused in the doctor case is allegedly 37 years old. If Mellah moved in in 2005, there was an upper limit of 35 years for the student flats, which means that procedures weren’t followed. What is the point of having procedures if you don’t follow them? Gjengaar says.

Security problems

If one had used the magnetic strip on the student ID as entry key in stead of a regular key, Mellah might have been forced to make other living arrangements. Forging the magnetic strip for those kinds of locks is a whole other ball park. This arrangement is already up and running in some student villages.

– Swipe cards with PIN numbers are safer than keys, manager of the security service Scan Kontroll Ulf Gunnar Breisnes says.

Bergo underlines that this is ideal, but that it costs money and will therefore take some time to get up and running in all student villages. SiO announces increased security measures for the flats.

– We ask residents to notify us or their landlord of anything out of the ordinary. In addition, We will simply do door-to-door rounds where we ask for IDs and student cards. People who do not respond to our request, will be notified that we will let ourselves in, Bergo says.

– But have you been thorough enough in checking for validity of the IDs?

– I hope so, but we are definitely going to be so in the future. Everything will be checked, and I feel convinced that we are now thorough enough, Bergo says.

SiO now wants access to UiO’s student records in order to check that students are indeed enrolled at UiO.