At the beginning of the school year, the administration implemented a new safety policy which restricts student access to dormitories and other campus buildings. Unlike the old policy, which allowed students to enter all residence halls with a valid Georgetown ID, the new policy restricts entrance to residents of the building. Students’ GOCards will not open the doors to dorms in which they do not live, and they must be signed in if they enter another dorm. The policy, intended to increase the safety of students, came as part of a campus-wide security upgrade in response to Sept. 11.
Although the policy directly affects student life, it was created without student input, causing its widely unpopular reception. The University now has a chance to rectify its misdeed by putting in place a policy that is the product of student and administrative collaboration. As soon as the new policy took effect, there was an outcry regarding new safety issues created by the switch. Students felt that locking dorms to non-residents could create more safey hazards than it fixes. For instance, students worried that they would no longer be able to enter a nearby dorm to escape a mugging or an assault. The Georgetown University Student Association quickly drafted a letter to the administration condemning the policy, prompting the University to form a Security Committee composed of students and administrators. Georgetown also held several forums to explain the policy and gauge student opinion.
This discussion resulted in the administration’s consideration of GUSA’s proposed version of the policy, in which 24-hour guards would be placed in all dorms. Students would be able to access any dorm, but would still have to sign in if they were not residents of the building. The University would continue to staff the dorms with student guards between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. and would contract out the remaining hours to an independent security firm. Although the University has not officially accepted GUSA’s proposal, they have drafted a letter soliciting the services of several security firms. If adopted, the 24-hour guards will be in place in January.
The University should accept and implement the revised policy as soon as possible. It erred in creating a policy meant to ensure the safety of students without consulting any students, but now has the opportunity to right itself. The administration should seek to install the 24-hour guards in dorms even before January, if at all possible. Doing so will not only leave campus more secure, but affirm the importance of student opinion in administrative decisions.
