Access system prepares to go live SGA surveys students while task force implements plan

Author: Katie Flagg

Following President Ronald D. Liebowitz's Feb. 13 announcement of new security protocol, the task force for the implementation of the enhanced access system has been hard at work facilitating the adoption of new security measures. According to Assistant Treasurer Tom Corbin, head of the task force charged with implementing Liebowitz's 24-hour locking policy, the enhanced access system is scheduled for a "go live date" of March 28.

The task force has focused its energies in the past weeks on making sure that both faculty and staff that need access to residence halls during the day have both cards and access to these facilities. The group is coordinating publicity to educate students and community members regarding upcoming security changes, and signs are being printed and e-mails scripted to facilitate campus awareness. The task force is also making long-term recommendations that some additional doors be placed under access control, securing residence halls in mixed-use facilities like the Hepburn and Forest halls.

The task force is also working hand-in-hand with the College's Commons system to prepare students for the upcoming change. Commons Deans sent out e-mails to all students on Tuesday announcing the trial run of the new system. On March 16, 17 and 18 - the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday prior to Spring Recess - all dormitories will be locked in order to test the new policy.

In an effort to ensure that all students possess access cards by the time of the trial run - and certainly by the time of the full implementation of the new policy - the task force directing implementation has granted a period of amnesty for all students who have lost their school-issue access cards. Until March 7, students will be able to request a replacement access card free of charge. Prior to this decision, Public Safety charged students a $10 replacement fee for lost access cards.

In order to obtain new access cards, students are encouraged to send a request, via e-mail, to Commons coordinators including their name and student ID number. Commons offices will be organizing the distribution of new access cards in an attempt to, as Dean of Cook Commons David Edlestein said, ensure students are not "literally left out in the cold."

As Liebowitz's task force is hard at work preparing to enact the new locking schedule, and as Commons work to replace lost access cards, the Student Government Association (SGA) is at work on its own - gauging student reactions to the administration's new security policies. SGA President Andrew Jacobi '05 and Wonnacott Senator Eli Berman '07 presented a proposal Sunday to conduct a survey on Bannerweb to gauge student reactions to the new locking schedule.

While some members of the SGA felt that the decision had already been made by the administration, and that a survey would have little effect on the actual decision to alter security procedures, others stressed the importance of exploring student opinion on the issue.

"Right now, the only plans the SGA has regarding the security system is this survey," said Berman. "All anecdotal evidence points to students being very upset over the implementation of the 24-hour locking schedule, [and the] SGA wants to know the overall feeling on campus."

Following discussion, nine members of the SGA voted in favor of the survey, 3 in opposition and 2 abstained from voting. The SGA survey will be conducted online and will assess and gauge how many students lock their doors, when these students lock their doors and will attempt to discover if students will lock their doors less frequently with outside doors locked at all hours of the day. The survey will also ask students if they feel safer with the implementation of the new security policy.

"We aim to ask unbiased questions, both about how students feel about the decision [to lock doors 24 hours a day] and how safe students feel on campus," said Jacobi. "While we understand that this decision was made for reasons that did not include student opinion, we felt that it was important for the administration to know how students feel about this decision."

The survey will also "help answer the question of whether the students who were so upset by this decision make up a vocal minority or whether the majority of students really do feel that this decision was not the right one to make," said Jacobi.

Sunday's discussion - and the subsequent decision to issue a survey - signals the SGA's first entrance into the debate of the new policy.

"SGA was not included in this decision to any degree," said Berman. "Even if the decision had already been made, it should have been at least discussed with the student body before it was implemented. This is our school, and we have the right to be heard."

Jacobi's personal opinions regarding the new policy had little to do with his support of the SGA-sponsored survey. "Personally, I do not have a problem with the decision," he said. "I welcome any reasonable decision that will enhance student safety on campus, and I think that there have been too many incidents of crime and theft within residential spaces this year."

That said, Jacobi strongly supports a survey of student opinion. "While the survey may not have any effect on the decision to carry out the new policy, it is always important for administrators to realize the effects their decisions have on the student body, and that is what we are trying to facilitate," he said.