Last week’s edition of The Voice contained an editorial which criticized what we believed were ineffective modifications made to the lockdown policy (“Lockdown: a partial fix,” Sept. 11).
We did not understand the changes that were made. Our major concern was whether the new policy would help students who are moving around the campus at night to seek protection in University buildings. The new policy does, in fact, successfully addresses this very issue, and the students involved have done an admirable job of shaping a policy that should prove effective.
As Georgetown University Student Association President Brian Morgenstern (CAS ‘05) explained in a letter, “The greatest strength of the new policy is that any student with a GOCard can now enter any dorm building lobby at any time of day or night. After 9 p.m., only the residents of a given building will be allowed past the student guard desk; non-residents must be signed in by a resident.” This policy change is a strong solution to the problem of protecting students’ safety 24 hours a day. Morgenstern is correct in his assessment that “this new policy [is] a victory for Georgetown students, and a testament to the responsiveness of university administrators to student safety needs. Particularly, administrators Spiros Dimolitsas, Todd Olson, Bob Robinson and Jeanne Lord deserve commendation for their contributions.” The changes made to the lockdown policy are indeed indicative of the positive results that can occur when students open a positive dialogue with university administrators, and we hope such efforts to do so continue in the future.
Morgenstern and the rest of GUSA have worked extremely hard towards the goal of enhancing a sense of community at Georgetown while promoting students’ safety. Moreover, their work is often thankless. The entire student body will benefit from this change to the University’s security policy, but few know how many hours their elected officials have spent to achieve this goal. We apologize for our error. Students can learn more about the new policy on GUSA’s website at gusa.georgetown.edu.
