It's almost second nature now.
Stop in front of the little black box. Brandish an ID. Wait for a green light.
But the seemingly easy transition for students from an open campus to one with a card lock system belies the decade-long debate over the need for a stronger security system.
The idea of an access-control system for dorms dates back 12 years, according to Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels. An increasing awareness of safety issues kept the issue current, but it wasn't until two years ago that what one official described as "an increasing general concern" for safety pushed what was a mere proposal into a plan for action.
Door locks reentered campus debate after years away from the spotlight with a 1998 report recommending a two-key system with a master card to open dorms and then individual room keys, Director of Facilities Operations and Management Frank Roberts said.
A poll later found that students, when asked to choose between having two keys and a proximity card system, preferred the latter. The College settled on proximity cards.
By Feb. 2001 the decision was made to go ahead with door locks, and letters were sent to students' Hinman boxes to make it final.
The announcement came in the wake of two intrusions into women's dormitory bathrooms in Jan. and Feb. 2001, as well as the stabbing deaths of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop in their Etna home that same winter.
But Roberts insisted the decision was not prompted by any specific incidents, but rather by an "increasing general concern."
As it turned out, the implementation was postponed because of budgetary and technology concerns.
"When the conversation about locks started, proximity cards weren't even invented, and we naturally didn't want to be the first college testing a new system, either," Roberts said.
The card system was seen as advantageous because it could be programmed onto the ID cards that students carry with them already and because it could be expanded to include other functions. According to Roberts, the cards can also be used to control access to labs and rooms within departments.
Once it was decided to install a card-lock security system, the College did what is typical when moving forward with any significant change -- it formed a committee. Eckels and Roberts were both members, along with others who were interested.
But while most of the administration, according to Roberts, favored the added security, students' reactions to the locks have been varied.
This summer, the Student Assembly drafted a report calling for several amendments to the door lock system, including deactivating it in the daytime and giving dormitory access to off-term students.
"I was opposed to the locks before they were implemented," Student Body President Janos Marton '04 said. "The openness of Dartmouth's campus was one of the most attractive things for me."
Roberts said he recognized that many students had been attracted to Dartmouth because of its safe feeling, but he said that the locks do not reflect a lack of safety on campus.
"Many of us cherish an ideal that there is no crime here," Roberts said. "It is a fantasy, but Dartmouth is a safe campus, even before the locks. It is a matter of degrees, though."
Eckels added that this is not the first time dormitories have been constantly locked.
"In the '90s there was an aggravated assault in the River cluster and the doors there remained locked for three years," he said. "Now we can respond to events on a more even basis."
The locks were first activated over Summer term for a test run. They were turned on permanently last Thursday.
The Dartmouth Card Office has seen a sudden boost in their workload to accommodate the printing of all new cards and replacing those that stop working.
"It took us two weeks to print the cards and activate them," Dartmouth Card Office Manager Heidi Jones said. "The first four weeks we have been on all the time and haven't even taken time for lunch."
The new cards have also given rise to some unusual behaviors as students try to find the best way to use the card readers, which will supposedly read cards through wallets, pants and backpacks.
"It's interesting to see the motions people use to get in the doors," Eckels continued. "Some people pull their card out of their wallet and start waving it around 10 feet before they get in the door, which probably isn't very effective."
