A Day in the (Surveilled) Life of Eric:

Eric is a sophomore civil engineering major at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. It is

the year 2029 and this is his average Tuesday. Most days follow a similar schedule, even though
there are a few things he only does on Tuesdays.

12 AM: Eric sits in his room doing his Strengths of Materials homework, which is an online quiz
that he was instructed to do with only his notes (no online resources). He takes the quiz on a
tablet that the school provides him.

As he is doing this quiz, the tablet is automatically recording him. Not only is it recording
audio and video, but it is also recording what is going on with the screen. It will be able to see
if Eric changes his screen and what he changes it to. It will show if he googles something,
which is against the rules. This is a feature of the tablet that you do not have an option to turn
on and off. When you receive the tablet, you are aware of this component of it but cannot do
anything about it. After you submit the quiz, the video saves, and it automatically sent to his
professor. The professor will watch the video on his own time and part of Eric’s grade will be if
he followed the rules of doing this without outside help.
1 AM: After he finishes his quiz, he gets his laundry and goes to the laundry room in the
basement of the building. No one does laundry at this time, so Eric knows it is the best time to do
it!

When he gets to the laundry room, he swipes in with his ID card and puts his clothes in the
washer. After the cycle has started, he goes back upstairs to his room. As he leaves, he goes
through a censor that recognizes that his ID card is going out the door. It starts a timer that is
hooked to his ID card, which is connected to his phone, so he will get a notification when the
washer has finished. Eric continues to do work until he gets the notification that the washer is
done. He moves the clothes into the dryer and when he leaves, the same thing happens to time
the dryer and is alerted when it is done.
2 AM: Eric is still doing his laundry.

See above.

3 AM: Eric’s Laundry is done and he goes to bed.

While he sleeps, his heart rate and sleep are being tracked by his watch. This information is not
only sent to the company that makes his watch, but also to Lafayette. This allows Lafayette to
see how long their students are sleeping, which, ideally, should be used to regulate how much
work the school is giving out. This probably won’t happen though.
4 AM: Eric is still sleeping.

See above.
5 AM: Eric is still sleeping.

See above.

6 AM: Eric is still sleeping.

See above.

7 AM: Eric is still sleeping.

See above.

8 AM: Eric is still sleeping.

See above.

8:30 AM: Eric wakes up and goes through his morning routine.

When he gets up he goes to the bathroom to take a shower, brush his teeth, and get dressed.
Cameras are still (rightfully) illegal in bathrooms, so no surveillance happens then.
9 AM: Eric goes to get his breakfast.

Eric heads to the dining hall for breakfast. Freshman year, Lafayette tracked what Eric liked to
eat for his meals and now has suggested meals for him. When Eric gets to the dining hall, he
orders at a kiosk. There are ‘favorites’ which are meals that the school has generated for him
given what he has ordered in the past. There are also ‘healthy meal’ options that the school
stressed if you have not eaten healthy foods recently. They know this because they still track
what you order. If he wants something different, that is not suggested for him, he can easily get
that as well. But, as a creature of habit, Eric gets what Lafayette had ‘favorited’ for him, which
happens to also be healthy – the oatmeal with fruit.
10 AM: Eric goes to his Calculus class.

All classes at Lafayette are recorded with CCTV. Not only are the lectures recorded with video
and audio so the students can reference them again later, the students themselves are also
surveilled. There is another camera that points at the students’ desks which runs the whole
time. It is up to the professor if they ever want to view this footage, but it is there if they need
it. Professors can use it for a variety of reasons; it can help professors learn names and faces in
the beginning of the year, can allow them to see if people are skipping or sleeping through
class, and can be a reference if anything bad was to ever happen in class. If there is ever a fight
in class, professors can pull this footage which will show them what happened.
11 AM: Eric has a ski club meeting in the library.

Each floor of the library gets quieter as you go up, so the first floor is ‘loud’ and the top floor is
silent. All floors of the library are audio recorded, but audio only- no video. This allows the
librarians to keep track of noise levels on different floors which will help the work ethic of
 many students who require a quiet place to study. Since Eric and his friends are on the first
floor, they can be loud without getting in too much trouble.
12 PM: Eric goes to get lunch.

Lunch works the same as breakfast, so see 9 AM. But this time, he gets a ham sandwich.

1 PM: Eric has his Engineering Law class.

This class has the same surveillance system as the calculus class, so see 10 AM for specifics.
However, Eric does not like this class; he thinks it is pointless and boring. Since he only got a
few hours of sleep last night, he nods off in class.
2 PM: Eric gets held after class and must meet with the professor.

Eric’s professor noticed him falling asleep in class today. He asked Eric about this, and Eric
owned up to it. He said he did not get much sleep last night because he had a quiz to do and fell
asleep accidentally in his class. The professor explained how he had him falling asleep on
camera, but since Eric owned up to falling asleep, he said it was not necessary to pull up the
footage. The footage could be sent to administration to document Eric sleeping in class, but
since he doesn’t typically sleep in class and was honest about it, the professor did not see a need
to send the footage to admin.
3 PM: Eric goes to his Strengths of Materials class.

This class works the same as the calculus class, so see 10 AM.

4 PM: Eric does homework and relaxes in the library.

See library rules and surveillance above at 12 PM.

5 PM: Eric is still in the library doing homework.

See above.

6 PM: Eric meets his friends for dinner.

Dinner works the same as breakfast and lunch, so see 9 AM. This time, he eats a burrito.

7 PM: Eric and his friends walk to Wawa, a local convenience store, to do some food shopping.

When Eric and his friends get to Wawa, they notice signs for CCTV’s. It turns out the entire
store, as well as the parking lot around it, is surveilled by the local Easton police. Eric and his
friends decide to count how many cameras they can see in and around the store, which total 9.
There were 4 within the store aimed at the cash register and isles, and the 5 outside the store.
One was pointed directly at the dumpster in the back, and the other were spread out looking at
the parking lot.
8 PM: The group walks back to campus and decides to take a street sign that says ‘Lafayette
Way’ that is somewhat hidden in the trees.

Eric and his friends were look outs for the one kid who was taking the sign off the pole. They
though the coast was clear, but it turns out, there was a campus police officer in the distance
watching them. The officers dash-board camera was on, so he got it all recorded. He was too far
from the group to pick up audio, but he had a video recording of them. The group takes the
long way back to their dorm and when they get there, a campus police officer is waiting for
them. He states that he watched them take the sign and has it recorded, and immediately the
group gives the sign up. The officer decided to let them off easy, as what they did was harmless
and they were so apologetic as soon as he said anything.
9 PM: Eric does homework in his room.

There are no cameras in his room, and since all his homework is paper and pencil, and not on
the tablet that the school provided, he is not recorded.
10 PM: Eric is still doing homework.

See above.

11 PM: Eric starts his nightly routine and goes to bed.

His nightly routine is very similar to his morning routine, so see 8:30 AM.
See 3 AM for sleeping.