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Residence hall access restored

Scheele announces change in reponse to concerns from students

By Ryan Clark

Posted on Sunday, January 23rd, 2005, 12:00 am

andrew gordon

SWIPING CHANGES - A Gannett Hall resident swipes his card to get into the building. As of the beginning of this semester security protocols on all residence halls have reverted to those of past semesters.

In addition to changing residence hall entry times, Associate Dean of Students Kenda Scheele is looking to make a few other adjustments and held an open forum on Friday to discuss potential changes,

“Some of the changes we are looking to make concern rooming assignments and break housing,” said Scheele, who also oversees Residence Life and Programs. “During the semester and spring break, the goal is to keep around five halls open rather than all of them.”

The first major change concerned residence hall access times. Scheele announced that because of numerous concerns from students, all residence halls would be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m..

Last semester, the only way students could get into another building was by calling a person who lived in that hall.

“It’s a good thing to hear about,” said Mikela Martin, a Colvin Hall resident. “I remember last semester we had a community meeting at Balentine and we could not get in. That makes it harder to integrate a community.”

Scheele started receiving input about the issue in October. Once she saw that it was a legitimate concern among students, she attended two Residents on Campus meetings to see if the feeling was campus wide.

After hearing what different ROC representatives had to say, she decided to make the change.

“We asked Dean Scheele to come to a meeting and basically a lot of people said they felt that this added to hall damage as people are damaging doors trying to get in,” said ROC Vice President Erin Tripp. “I think that this speaks a lot to how the administration does care about what students need.”

A potential change discussed at the forum was cutting down on the number of residence halls open during breaks. Scheele said the idea was part of a cost-saving strategy.

According to Scheele, it cost the university nearly $10,000 to keep the halls open last spring break. As for the winter break, in 2004, it cost nearly $9,000 to keep the halls open while paying resident assistants to stay in the halls.

If the changes were to go into effect, a tentative list of buildings that would remain open during breaks would be Estabrooke, Gannett, Doris Twitchell Allen Village, Patch, Oxford and York hall.

During the breaks, the other residence halls would have work done on them so when students returned there would be some changes.

The second item discussed at the forum was the possibility of having more coed wings throughout the residence halls. Scheele stated that the goal of this would be to promote a better community that includes everyone instead of being divided by gender.