After months of controversy, the dormitory lockdown policy has been replaced by a 24-hour guard policy that allows all students access to the lobbies of all residence halls, rather than limiting them to the building in which they live.
The 24-hour guard policy, which took effect at midnight on Jan. 6, involves employing student guards between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. After midnight, professional guards from Allied Security will be posted at each of the eight dorms.
According to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, Allied was selected in early December from a pool of four applicants.
“They have a strong record and have been very effective at other universities. We are enthused to partner with them,” Olsen said.
An e-mail sent to the student body by the Department of Public Safety explained the duties of the professional guards.
“Members of Allied Security and Student Guards will review identification cards, report behavior or conduct issues, and limit access to residence halls to persons with proper identification,” the e-mail reads.
Residence halls will continue to be locked 24-hours a day, and that access will only be given to those with “legitimate business and proper identification.” Once they enter the building, non-residents of the building will still have to be signed in by a resident in order to gain entry to the rooms and common areas.
The lockdown policy was developed in the wake of Sept. 11 as part of a revision of the campus’ safety policy which included the formation of a University Response Team and an evaluation of DPS’ visibility.
The implementation of professional guards is the result of a compromise between students and the administration on the lockdown policy introduced at the beginning of the year. Under this policy, students were able to use their GOCards to enter only their own dormitories.
Many students opposed the lockdown, stating that locking students out of dorms was actually unsafe. The Georgetown University Student Association received a commitment from Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas and Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez that students would be involved in revising the lockdown policy and any future security policies.
According to Olsen, the administration was willing to listen to the students’ concerns. “We implemented tougher security procedures last semester and we heard from students that [the new procedures] only made sense if the buildings were guarded 24 hours a day,” he said
Students and administrators participated in a series of town-hall meetings that resulted in the approval of the 24-hour guards. Olsen said that he was pleased the administration was able to respond to the concerns of the students.
