Brooke Coupal ’16
Editor-in-Chief
President Christopher Hopey has reversed a new policy barring students from swiping into other residence halls as a result of student complaints.
Prior to this year, students were able to use their MackCard to swipe into residence halls until midnight each day of the week. However, students swiping into other residence halls this fall found their access denied.
Jim Chiavelli, Associate Vice President for Communications, said the college is working to restore swipe access to meet the previous policy of being allowed to swipe into residence halls until midnight.
Chiavelli said there were two reasons behind the decision to only allow students access to their own residential buildings. The first was “student concern as expressed through SGA about safety.”
“Administration would rather have the students feel safe than have the convenience of swiping into any building,” Anthony Preston ’16 said at the Sept. 8 Student Government Association meeting.
The second reason behind not having access to other residence halls was “tied to damages of dorms,” as stated by Chiavelli.
“We billed out just over $100,000 last year (in damages),” according to Beth Solomon, Assistant Director of Residence Life.
Due to the high cost of damages billed, Chiavelli said residence life felt this was an appropriate policy change. With less foot traffic in residence halls, there would be less people to cause damages within the buildings.
During the Oct. 6 Mack Meeting, students expressed their displeasure towards this policy change. At this meeting, Hopey said there will be a follow up meeting in the fall to discuss new changes to this policy, and other issues that have come up.
