Approximately 75 students discussed with administrators whether to lock the doors of all residence halls during an emergency town meeting in Collis Common Ground last night.
The meeting was called after students voiced concern over last week's Student Assembly vote supporting locking all doors beginning in the fall, giving all students a universal key and equipping main entrances with campus-only telephones.
Students asked questions to a panel of administrators from Safety and Security and the Office of Residential Life. Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '99 also fielded questions from students.
Eilertsen began the meeting by telling the audience it was a philosophical necessity that representatives vote for the general good and not always with the majority.
Before last week's vote, many Assembly members said they thought the majority of the student body was opposed to locking the dorm doors, but the Assembly still voted in favor of the plan in a 10 to eight vote.
Throughout the week, Student Assembly members received numerous BlitzMail messages from students upset by the vote.
"One of the things that became glaringly apparent is that we need to learn what students think," Acting Dean of Residential Life Mary Liscinsky said.
Liscinsky and Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels said while they were interested in hearing student opinion, the doors will be locked sometime in the future, regardless of student opinion.
"I believe it will happen somewhere down the road," Liscinsky said. "It's a national trend to lock the doors."
Few precise statistics were given, but College Proctor Robert McEwen said there have been incidents of rape and vandalism inside dorms in the past involving non-Dartmouth students, or unidentified students who might not have been from the College.
Many students presented alternative plans, including keeping all doors unlocked during the day and locking them only at night and providing students with the option of living in one specialty dorm which would be locked continuously.
"I would personally support unlocking the doors during the day," Liscinsky said, adding she would be "willing to consider" locking one special dorm.
Many students said locking the doors would change the culture of openness at the College.
One student said he thought the decision was being made too rashly and thought the students should be the ones to make the decision since they are the ones taking the safety risk.
Liscinsky said some students do not feel safe and a decision to keep the doors unlocked would also affect them.
Eilertsen said he was "concerned about those who feel safe not being considerate about those who don't feel safe ... you can't have enough security for me."
Other students, however, expressed concern the decision was being made to please a small group of students.
"It appears that a large majority of the students are being controlled by the minority," Tom Adair '99 said.
Some students said they hope any plan will include more technologically advanced safety features.
Olga Kulinets '01 said she hopes any new phones will also have panic buttons, providing instant access to Safety and Security similar to the way the emergency phones do now.
Eckels said the expense of adding panic buttons would increase the cost of each phone from approximately $600 to approximately $2,500.
The administrators said another alternative proposal, an electronic card access system, would also be too expensive.
Eckels estimated the cost of a keyless entry system to be approximately $600,000, and said he felt the College would not be willing to pay for the system without the knowledge it would be supported by the student body.
Eckels estimated the cost of the current lock and phone proposal at approximately $30,000.
At the end of the meeting a straw poll was conducted and approximately 75 percent of those in attendance voted against locking the dorm doors.
Fifty percent said they would be in favor of a electronic card access system, and 75 percent said they were in favor of equipping dorm entrances with telephones regardless of the decision of whether to lock the doors.
After the meeting Liscinsky told The Dartmouth she had not changed her opinion about locking the dorms, but said "what is changing is the timeline."
Assembly President-elect Josh Green told The Dartmouth he thinks the Assembly needs to do a better job of soliciting student opinion, but said he would not change the vote he cast last Tuesday in support of the measures.
"The good news is the process is going slowly," Green said.
Eilertsen told The Dartmouth he thought students need to understand the Assembly was trying to do what its members thought best for the student body and did not think the vote should have been delayed.
"You put your trust that they'll do what they think is best," Eilertsen said. "This issue is a right to safety."
Eilertsen said he had not expected to end his tenure as Assembly President in this controversial fashion.
"The locked door issue isn't even a big issue for me," Eilertsen said.
