By Michael GsovskiThe Daily Northwestern
A new round in the fire door exemption process began Thursday, when current and former Residential Hall Association and Residential College Board leaders met with senior administration officials regarding Northwestern’s dorm security policy.
“We know why you’re here,” said William Banis, NU’s vice president for student affairs. “Some of your halls aren’t doing so well from what we’ve been hearing.”
One result of the meeting was the announcement that dorms with fewer than 150 people would not receive security guards in the fall, after the current system of student security monitors is discontinued.
“So we’re going from student security monitors to no one?” asked Weinberg junior Sarah Whitney, former RCB president.
But University Police Lt. Ron Godby said cameras in all dorms and an increase in roaming police officers would improve security.
Weinberg sophomore Rita Biagioli, RCB vice president for social affairs, said she disagreed, drawing on her personal experience in Chapin Hall last year when an intruder managed to sneak into the dorm. Chapin has about 70 residents, meaning it would not receive its own security guard under the new policy.
“(The intruder) actually walked into the room across from mine,” Biagioli said. “I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in my room for a year unless someone was down there (in the main entrance). It wasn’t a fire door that that person came into.”
Banis said the policy was “not carved in granite” and that changes could be made to the security plans for smaller dorms if needed.
Under the new dorm alarm policy, which began March 27, all secondary doors in dorms were equipped to be 24-hour fire doors. In the weeks after the policy took effect, students complained about the ineffectiveness and inconvenience of the alarms, and administrators granted exemptions to select doors to improve access in some dorms.
Godby said the decision to leave main entrances open and fire doors locked was sound, citing the work done by a team of security consultants hired by NU.
“They said, ‘This is the primary entrance and this is the door that should remain alarmed,’ ” Godby said. “The idea of the main entrance with a closed circuit camera is that it will funnel people through it and act as a deterrent.”
Meanwhile, McCormick sophomore Erick Bennett, president of Slivka Residence Hall, said some university employees have not followed the policy themselves.
“It’s hard to sell this security to my dorm when I’ll stop one person from going through the door one minute, and literally one minute later someone from maintenance or facilities uses it to get to his truck,” Bennett said.
However, despite the many problems students had with the new policy, they said they agreed with the administration on several issues: educating students to lock their doors, preventing tailgating and creating a student committee on safety.
At the end of the meeting, Banis said he sympathized with students over the difficulties caused by the new policies.
“We’re all learning about this together,” Banis said. “Unfortunately, you’re right in the learning lab. So when an alarm sounds, you’re the first to know about it.”
All dorm presidents have until April 19th to file online for additional exemptions for fire doors in their dorms.
The forms are available at http://snap.it.northwestern.edu/p/p.cgi/uhfs/da/darequest.
Reach Michael Gsovski at [email protected].
