2008 Woodie Awards
OPINION: Alarm times keep on shiftin', shiftin'
Justin Lindborg, ColumnistInformation today is different than it was two weeks ago. This is especially true when it comes to developing news such as the pending ID card change. In a short presentation to ASWU on Oct. 3, assistant director of student housing Alan Jacob clarified many of the concerns surrounding the new ID card issue.
First, the official time limit for the door alarm has not yet been decided. Second, if an alarm were to go off a student would simply have to re-scan his or her card to reset it. Finally, most academic buildings will be unlocked during prime academic hours, and thus will not trigger an alarm if left open.
Before I go further, allow me to apologize. Two weeks ago, on Sept. 25, I stated the alarms were to be set off after a door was held open for 10 seconds, a time which is far from official. I went on to complain that such a time limit would be problematic for a variety of reasons.
One of these was that a Core class exiting Weyerhaeuser would trigger the alarm. The building can be unlocked, thus negating the concern.
Another concern was that holding a door for someone a 6 second walk away from the door would either result in an alarm going off or no one holding the door, an obvious affront to chivalry. With an as-of-yet undefined alarm timer, this would seem to be less of a problem.
The curious thing of the matter, however, is how I came to believe that 10 seconds was indeed the time limit decided on. I was not guilty of the misinformation, nor was the Whitworthian story that initially reported the new card system. It seems there is a gap in communication between the various branches overseeing this project, which led to the timer mix-up and possibly explaining many of the snags it has run into more recently.
The entire alarm process is supervised by Student Life, with Facilities Services focusing primarily on security and the alarm policy and Information Sytems helping with installation. When first asked about the time limit, Facilities Services told The Whitworthian 10 seconds.
Some Student Life administrators, however, complained after the fact was printed that it was inaccurate. Student Life favored a 30-second alarm time limit, while others believed it would be set for 10 seconds, or 15 seconds or 45 seconds.
Although the campus-wide e-mail on Wednesday, Oct. 3 did clear up several problems in association with the alarm, a few problems which persist.
In a more recent interview, Ed Kelly, director of Facilities Services, said he thought the alarm, which is audible at the door, would not be abused by students as a joke.
While this is an optimistic statement, one has only to think back to how many times a fire alarm has been pulled as a prank in order to realize that any other alarm is positively ripe for abuse, regardless if it takes 10, 30 or a thousand seconds to set it off.
Clearly, no one in the administration is intentionally mixing things up, and all involved are doing their best to resolve any problems to the best of their abilities.
Despite best intentions, however, there have been obvious miscommunications, adding to the troubles which plague the new system and causing confusion all around.
Justin Lindborg is an opinions columnist and a sophomore majoring in English Literature. Contact him at justin.lindborg@whitworthian.com.
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