On Monday, Jan. 9 UBC staff arrived at work to find evidence of a break-in at the front desk of Thunderbird Residence.
The university has confirmed that keys and contact cards were among the stolen items.
The University RCMP is investigating the robbery and has already made one arrest according to an emailed statement from UBC Associate Vice-President of Student Housing and Community Services (SHCS), Andrew Parr.
"We understand that news of the break-in is unsettling for students, particularly those living in Thunderbird Residence," Parr tells V.I.A. "Some students may have concerns regarding their safety and privacy following this incident. Incidents like this, while very rare on campus, are disturbing."
Parr assures that students were contacted within two hours of the break-in and once UBC and the RCMP determined which items were missing SHCS began work to replace all the unit door locks. They expect to be finished by the end of the day today.
"We also consulted UBC’s Privacy Office to determine the potential privacy risk to students and informed students of the privacy breach in an email update on Tuesday," says Parr. "The privacy risk has been deemed low as the information did not contain any banking or credit card information and because they are in paper form, making them hard to distribute."
He adds that no electronically stored information was stolen or compromised.
The school's initial focus has been addressing immediate concerns and keeping students up to date, according to Parr but they are also looking into their security measures to determine if any changes should be made to reduce the risk of an incident like this happening again.
It is advised that any students concerned about their safety and/or privacy contact UBC SHCS.
V.I.A has reached out to the RCMP for more information.
