By Kaitlin Thaney
In the past, residents of West Villages A, B and C could sign into other buildings in their complex, however, their access may soon be limited.
The changes may include limiting access at certain times of day, a crack-down on security thought to have resulted from the nation’s previous orange alert status.
The reasoning behind particular “limitations,” however, would be mostly because of recent Homeland Security issues and the campus’ desire to adopt a more campus-wide, equal access policy; the same for every residence hall.
“I heard some limitations, but I’m not sure how permanent they are,” said James Ferrier, the associate director of public safety.
He said the Public Safety Division could not order new access regulations, they could only observe and suggest ideas to Residential Life.
The new access policy adopted by Residential Life allows students 24-hour, seven days a week access to their own building. If the staff office for their complex is in another building, they may swipe into that building from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Access to buildings holding their resident advisor’s office is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
Students may also sign into other buildings in their complex from 7 a.m. to midnight for Hall Council and hall programs. This allows residents more control over who is signed in or out from midnight to 7 a.m.
“What we didn’t want to happen was to restrict access in a way that would panic students,” said Associate Dean of Residential Life M.L. Langlie. “We didn’t want to affect [their] day-to-day routine.”
The Residential Life staff hoped that the adaptations to the existing policy would be reasonable.
Langlie said that college campuses are seen as very “soft targets” for terrorists. Following September 11, ideas for different regulation implementations, according to the level of homeland security were tossed around. After meeting with Public Safety, neither liked the idea of denying admittance of guests into the residence hall if the nation were to switch to a red alert. The thought of not being able to have friends sign into the building or parents if they visited was not one that went over well.
Public Safety agreed that if they ever were to deny guest privileges it would be very much on a strict case-to-case basis.
All residence complexes on campus will be subject to the same policy. Certain complexes will have more regulations than they used to while other complexes will be granted more freedom than they had before. The access policy will serve as a type of leavening agent that will put security in all of the buildings on the same level.
Students can expect a memo from Langlie this week that will discuss the access privileges per building and the reasoning behind it.
Langlie acknowledges and apologizes for changing the access without warning. She said Residential Life is very open to input regarding the security and access privileges. The current policy is said to remain in place for the remaining academic year. Students can talk to their RA or RSA representative about their ideas or concerns.
The new policy will remain in place at least until fall 2003.
