Where to Draw the Line Between Security and Convenience
By Kim Scroggins
I feel that as college students who are paying to live on campus, there is always something to complain about, whether it is the food in the dining hall or roommate situations. In fact, it seems that at the beginning of each semester, Facebook statuses are filled with complaints about something campus related.
This semester was met with the excitement of the newly installed bathroom keypads. Upon returning to campus after winter break, RA’s were quick to inform those moving back should “test out” the new bathroom locks in order to get more comfortable with the new system.
Apparently, this new system has been added to a couple of the residence halls on campus and now requires the students to swipe their student IDs and enter the first three digits of their birthday followed by the pound key (for example March 25 as 325#) in order to successfully enter the bathroom.
That’s all good and well, yet we have to deal with the obnoxious beep that it produces when being used. With my door being right next to the bathroom, it’s comparable to an alarm – never failing to wake me up every time.
But now I ask: Why the hell were they even put there in the first place? Were people that abusive to their bathroom privileges that they had to restrict our entry? From what I understand, the system keeps track of just who is scanning in and how long their in there for…but I don’t see how or why it needs to monitor exactly how long someone is in the bathroom for. I’m hoping that that’s an exaggeration.
The rule of thumb in almost all the dorms has always been that personal items are not to be kept in the bathrooms. So, are these new locks a way for us to be able to keep our stuff in there? That would be so much more convenient. Instead of having to carry everything to and from the bathroom every time, we would be able to just leave it all in there and not have to worry about people walking in and taking it. I guess that’s always a plus.
I could understand putting them in if it was a matter of boys sneaking into the girl’s bathrooms , but that theory is shot since they put them in other dorms besides Barrows. They definitely wouldn’t be as bad if they didn’t beep. If they flashed green when they were working and red if there was a problem, there wouldn’t be as many complaints. Since it’s too late in the game to do anything about it now, they are just a matter of getting used to: but are a real inconvenience if you really have to pee.