With attendance exceeding 3,500 at six home men’s basketball games this season, is security at the O’rena a concern?

Andy Adrianse, director of facilities for Oakland University Athletics, wrote in an email that the school intends to employ additional layers of security.

“Attendance is a driving factor, but not the only consideration,” Adrianse wrote. “We want everybody to feel welcome, comfortable, and most importantly safe when they come to the O’rena.”

Security takes on different forms depending on what is happening in the O’rena, he wrote.

“Security is a hard thing to quantify in this case, and we certainly don’t want to divulge all of our ongoing efforts,” Adrianse wrote, “but we attempt to structure the level of safety and security around the needs of our events and our evolving athletics needs along with other events that we host in the O’rena.”

The main doors of the O’rena remain unlocked during the day, even when no events are occurring. The final section of the Ethos of Oakland University Athletics includes “providing a welcoming environment.”

“We do employ a camera system much like other areas of campus,” Adrianse wrote. “The Oakland University Police Department has been very supportive of our efforts and we appreciate the partnership we have with them and others across campus.”

He wrote that Oakland is always looking for ways to enhance the security infrastructure, and that a number of factors must be considered before adding more security. He thinks everyone can always do a better job with security regardless of the scale of the event or facility.

“We’ll do our best to communicate any security initiatives to the general public and the university population whenever we feel it is beneficial to do so,” Adrianse wrote.

Oakland has been fortunate to experience comparatively few problems, according to Adrianse, but he wrote that he will make sure to maintain a watchful eye on a regular basis. Jeff Konya, athletic director, said Oakland hopes it will be a norm to sell out every game at the O’rena.

“We haven’t really had some of the issues that other venues have had,” Konya said. “Our fans are the best. I think our students are the best. I think our sponsors are the best. I think our boosters are the best.

“We’re very thankful to have that level of maturity in our fan base.”

Konya, Adrianse and other staff members want to make students feel safe and want student athletes to have a rewarding experience during their time at Oakland.