The uneasy feeling at Kansas University’s all-female residence halls might linger for a while.

Kansas University police said Tuesday they couldn’t give a timeline for when surveillance cameras would be installed in parking lots near residence halls — an issue that resurfaced this week with the armed robbery of a freshman in the parking garage for the all-female Gertrude Sellards Pearson and Corbin residence halls.

Capt. Schuyler Bailey, a KU police spokesman, said the school had received bids from camera companies but hadn’t yet chosen one. He said it was taking awhile in part because KU wants cameras that will last for decades.

“We want quality equipment,” he said. “We’re stressing to vendors that this stuff has to be sharp.”

Monday night’s robbery was at least the third violent crime in KU residence hall lots in the past year.

GSP and Corbin residents say it’s common for women who live in the halls to either avoid walking at night or call friends on cell phones to feel safer. The main parking garage where Monday’s robbery happened often is full, so residents must park in overflow lots as far away as Memorial Stadium.

“Cameras would be nice, and more patrolling” by police, freshman Nicole Barnhart said.

“I think there definitely could be some improvements as far as lighting,” freshman Lindsey Rich said.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged the suspect in Monday night’s robbery, Jesse A. Plaster, 23, Tonganoxie, with aggravated robbery and fleeing to elude police. Police said he approached an 18-year-old resident of GSP/Corbin inside the garage, brandished a gun, demanded her keys and backpack, and fired the gun as he got into the car.

6News video: Authorities make arrest in carjacking case KU student robbed on campus (09-28-04) 6News video: KU student robbed at gunpoint (09-28-04)

According to court records, Plaster was convicted of burglarizing cars in the same lot in December 2001.

In the 2001 burglaries, police alleged Plaster led them on a high-speed pursuit onto the Kansas Turnpike after an officer responded to a car alarm coming from the garage. On Monday night, police say, Plaster again led them on a pursuit that started at Sixth and Iowa streets and ended when he ran into a dead end near 12th and Indiana streets.

Douglas County District Judge Pro Tem Peggy Kittel set Plaster’s bond at $60,000.

Plaster had been on parole with the Kansas Department of Correction but absconded on Friday, records show. His criminal history includes convictions for auto burglary in Leavenworth and Johnson counties and a conviction in Johnson County of escaping from custody.