2008 Woodie Awards
Administrators consider card system
Karin Portenkirchner, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/14/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
Dorm residents can now vote whether to unlock doors during visitor-busy evening hours. This policy is in response to student outcry over residence halls being locked 24 hours a day after security threats on campus earlier this semester, namely car break-ins and harassing phone calls to some Whitworth residents.
"What we are trying to do with this measure is to balance security for all of our residents with convenience," said Alan Jacob, assistant director of student housing.
While keeping the doors open might be a concern, some students go from dorm to dorm each night, Jacob said.
So far, the majority of the campus resident halls have already voted. Arend, Baldwin-Jenkins, Boppell, Duvall, Tiki, Stewart and Warren have agreed to open their doors from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Akili did not have a very large voter turnout but they have decided to keep their doors locked for now. They will be revisiting this in the second semester, residence director Kari Dykhouse said.
When a dorm agrees to the new opening hours, they can "take effect right away," said Kathy Storm, vice president for student life.
At the moment Whitworth is working on a schedule with security that allows the halls to open as close to 5 p.m. as possible, Storm said.
This will also allow resident halls to be unlocked almost simultaneously.
For the future, Whitworth is considering installing an electronic card access system for the resident halls.
Students living in a certain residence hall would have access to their dorms around-the-clock, while students from other dorms only would get access during certain hours. Off-campus students are in general not entitled to have access to residence halls, but access will be granted to them when they ask for it, Jacob said.
To prepare for the installation of such a system, a card access task force has been formed. The task force consists of director of information systems and task force chair Jackie Miller, assistant director of student housing Alan Jacob, associate director of information systems Terry Norton, senior and student representative Megan Duff, Sodexho general manager Jim O'Brien, Bart Sanders of the registrar's office, specialist of information systems Nancy Oltman, director of the library Hans Bynagle and manager of student accounting services Darle Freeborn.
"What we are trying to do with this measure is to balance security for all of our residents with convenience," said Alan Jacob, assistant director of student housing.
While keeping the doors open might be a concern, some students go from dorm to dorm each night, Jacob said.
So far, the majority of the campus resident halls have already voted. Arend, Baldwin-Jenkins, Boppell, Duvall, Tiki, Stewart and Warren have agreed to open their doors from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Akili did not have a very large voter turnout but they have decided to keep their doors locked for now. They will be revisiting this in the second semester, residence director Kari Dykhouse said.
When a dorm agrees to the new opening hours, they can "take effect right away," said Kathy Storm, vice president for student life.
At the moment Whitworth is working on a schedule with security that allows the halls to open as close to 5 p.m. as possible, Storm said.
This will also allow resident halls to be unlocked almost simultaneously.
For the future, Whitworth is considering installing an electronic card access system for the resident halls.
Students living in a certain residence hall would have access to their dorms around-the-clock, while students from other dorms only would get access during certain hours. Off-campus students are in general not entitled to have access to residence halls, but access will be granted to them when they ask for it, Jacob said.
To prepare for the installation of such a system, a card access task force has been formed. The task force consists of director of information systems and task force chair Jackie Miller, assistant director of student housing Alan Jacob, associate director of information systems Terry Norton, senior and student representative Megan Duff, Sodexho general manager Jim O'Brien, Bart Sanders of the registrar's office, specialist of information systems Nancy Oltman, director of the library Hans Bynagle and manager of student accounting services Darle Freeborn.
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