Staff Editorial: Unlocking Penn

Residents of the Quad had good reason to be concerned about their safety in the fall of 2002, following an unauthorized entry by a man who had no business being there.

On Sept. 28, 2002, a female student living in the Quad reported being sexually assaulted by a 36-year-old man, who had slipped into the dormitory in the midst of a larger group.

In response, the University ordered the interior doors on the Quad buildings to be locked, making them accessible only to residents -- at least in theory. This seemed like an appropriate security measure at the time.

While this was an awful incident, it took place more than two years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

The suspect was apprehended shortly after the incident. The security guard who carelessly allowed him into the Quad was immediately dismissed for being asleep at the switch.

Now the Quad is equipped with electronic entry gates that allow residents to swipe their PennCards for access to the building -- a system that has proven to be more secure than the lax entrance protection of the past.

Yet to this day, the interior doors remain locked. Doors to the Quad's bathrooms remain locked. Exterior doors to all other campus residences are locked at 2 a.m.

Safety is always a top priority when student residences are concerned, but isn't it about time to ease up on the "lockdown?"

On Sunday, the Undergraduate Assembly took a good first step in the process of opening the doors to Penn's residences once again. While the UA's proposal included a number of options -- from unlocking doors completely to restricting hours for open access -- the best solution is to do away with the interior locks altogether.

It is silly for Quad residents to be required to bring a key with them when trekking to the bathroom down the hall. College houses are supposed to feel more like home for students, not like the restroom at a shady convenience store.

To counteract this, many residents have taken action by taping over locks and disabling them in other ways. Obviously these locks are overkill.

Where the locks on the individual buildings are concerned, this is just another unnecessary layer of security. They may have made sense before the security upgrade at the main gates, but by now they have overstayed their welcome.

If the Quad is supposed to be a community living environment -- one of the main reasons people choose to live there -- what is the point of keeping people behind locked doors?

Why should residents of Class of '28 be locked out of Speakman because they technically live in Fisher-Hassenfeld College House and not Ware? In this case, the exterior locks are pointless, given that residents can walk between the two houses once inside.

From a security standpoint, the goal should be to keep people out of the Quad who do not belong there, not to keep Penn students away from their next-door neighbors.

And this is not just a concern for Quad residents. By requiring entry keys for all of the campus dormitories late at night, the University is essentially segregating its population. What is it about someone from Hill that justifies locking that person out of the high rises at 2 a.m.?

An electronic system based on PennCards -- such as is used on the exterior doors of nearly all academic buildings -- could be one solution to this problem.

College house security has improved over the past two years. Now it's time to re-evaluate the system to make sure any Penn student has access to any building at any time.

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