By Stephen Cooney
The next time University students head to the bathroom in any of the high-rise towers, they must remember to take their keys, or they may find themselves locked out of their rooms.
The University has just finished installing self-closing, self-locking doors in Constitution Hall in the process of finishing a program started in the 2003 academic year. These devices are known by students across the campus as “slam locks” because they not only make the door close behind students as they exit, but they also lock instantly upon closure.
Constitution Hall as one of the final four residence halls on campus to have the devices installed, and with its completion, only Enterprise, Van Der Poel, and Liberty and Republic Halls are not equipped with the door locks yet.
“This has been an ongoing program for about three or four years,” said Ed Bracht, the director of Public Safety. “An outside risk-management company and risk consulting group reviewed all of our policies and it came out well. It is a good standard for the industry and they recommended that we continue installing the self-closing self-locking doors.”
The department of Public Safety said they believe the installation of the locks was out of concern for students’ safety.
The Annual Campus Safety Report compiles statistics based on incidents reported directly to the local police, the department of Public Safety and other University officials who have significant responsibility for student and campus activities. According to the report from the last three years, there have been a total of 139 reported burglaries.
“There were cases when people would leave doors open and someone would walk into the room,” Bracht said. “Also people would go out for the evening and not want to take their keys and then there would be petty thefts.”
Bracht stressed that the department felt these were safety issues for students and that installing the new system would help prevent these instances from occurring.
However, “there has been a real reduction in entries, thefts from rooms and uninvited guests walking into rooms.” Bracht said. “This gives much more safety and privacy to a person inside their room.”
The Department of Public Safety said they understood that students forget their keys. “We responded to lockouts.” Bracht said. “In the beginning, there were more, but now there are not. I believe students in general feel more comfortable this way.”
Students were apprehensive about the installation of the locks. “They’re fine, as long as they [public safety] are fine with us bolting them [to prop the door open] if we have to leave for a few minutes,” said Daron Jackson, a senior who lives in Alliance hall.