By Jeanine Poggi

Residents in Alliance Hall now have to swipe their ID cards through two scanners in order to enter their dorm building.

Double swipe entrances will be activated in all residential halls as part of a 5-year plan to improve campus safety, Edward Bracht, the director of public safety, said.

“The double swipe will help deter people lurking outside the buildings and prevent them from following someone else in,” he said.

The new swipe machines have been installed in all dorms, but will not be used until buzzers are added. Without the buzzers to get resident security’s attention, visitors will be stuck waiting outside the buildings.

Bracht also plans on putting a phone outside the dorms so visitors can contact residents.

New glass is also being installed similar to the window outside Nassau and Suffolk halls, where visitors can talk to security in the booths and provide identification.

Bracht hopes that the double swipe entrances and other new additions will be activated by the time students return from spring break.

On Saturday and Sunday morning Bracht stood outside of Alliance Hall to make sure everything was operating smoothly.

“I spoke to residents and for the most part they agreed that it [double swipe doors] is a pleasant alternative,” he said.

Students living in the building only have to take out their ID cards five feet earlier and the doors give them an added part of security, he said

Not all students, however, see the benefit in the new entrances.

“I feel like I live in a prison,” Dana Noto, a sophomore Alliance resident, said.

Freshman Katie Bogonis, who lives on the seventh floor of Alliance, agreed the new doors are a nuisance.

“They are annoying and unnecessary,” she said. “If you have an ID you have an ID. There is no need to prove it twice. Resident security workers let everybody in anyway.”

Antionette Babino, a resident security representative said that there is a lot of pressure on students working in the booths.

“The double swipe doors are a waste of time,” she said. “It puts RSRs in a bad position. Do you just buzz everybody in? What is the point?”

Bracht hopes that the new security systems will aid in the effort to keep students safe.

His 5-year plan includes turnstile doors, as well as self-locking, self-closing doors in every residential hall.

“Security is a 1,000 piece puzzle,” he said. “The double swipe doors are not the be all and end all to security.”

Alliance Hall is the first of all residentail halls to have the double-swipe system.