At Marquette University, the first residence hall to put the secure access process in action is Humphrey Hall, and the goal of this trial run is to see students’ feedback on the protocol.
University President Michael Lovell made an announcement to the Marquette community that “several recent incidents have affected our campus, creating heightened concern around safety and security,” which had led to the recent change in safety procedures upon entering the dorms.
The President’s Task Force at Marquette University was introduced to help ensure campus safety. During a recent meeting, the task force announced five workgroups that would focus on developing new safety strategies for students. The task force consists of students, parents and community partners.
Mary Janz, the executive director of housing and residence life, was one of the people to help develop and implement this new plan for student safety. Janz said that Humphrey was the perfect choice for the pilot due to the minimal student population as well as the current technology that the residence hall has.
“We were asked to identify a residence hall that we could pilot the program in, and we felt like Humphrey was a good option mostly because of the number of students,” Janz said.
Humphrey Hall has the ability to house nearly 300 students, those of which are first-year and sophomore students at Marquette.
The pilot was put into action on March 23 at 8:00 AM, and residents of Humphrey Hall are now required to swipe into the dorms in order to get in.
The change in the protocol involves an intercom system being placed at the exterior of Humphrey Hall. This intercom will allow students to request access to the building if they were to forget their IDs, and it will be monitored by the front desk staff. Students will then proceed to the desk and check-in as normal.
At Marquette, students are given identification cards that allow them to access libraries, computer labs and rec centers, as well as contains Marquette CASH and an individuals meal plan, if they have one. The card is also required for residence hall entrance at the front desk.
Janz said that a lot of the feedback from the new protocol will come from students who are currently residents at Humphrey Hall. The plan is to allow for students to voice their opinion of the new system, and changes will be made regarding their feedback.
“A small committee of us have been working to develop a survey that students will get when they are in a floor meeting so we can solicit student opinion. There will also be a survey box at the front desk where students can drop their comments in. Those are just some early ways to seek student opinion to see what’s working or not and make the necessary changed,” Janz said.
Anna Ring, a first-year in the College of Nursing, is currently a resident of Humphrey Hall, and noticed the new safety precautions at Humphrey and said that the new process doesn’t seem promising.
“I don’t think that the building scanning system will have much of an influence in dangerous situations. If something serious were to happen the scanner would not be preventative enough in my opinion,” Ring said.
Morgan Wiberg, a first-year in the College of Business Administration, is also a resident at Humphrey said her experience with the new security systems has not been positive and is hoping that changes will be made before it is implemented all over campus.
“The new protocols are actually quite irritating because my ID has not been working to scan in,” Wiberg said. “If I could make changes to the new protocols, I would make it easier for students without IDs or broken IDs to enter the building.”
Jadyn Taylor, a junior in the College of Business Administration, is a Resident Assistant at Humphrey. Taylor said that he experienced getting items stolen in Humphrey because they gained access through the exterior of the building. After these events, he said that the new swipe requirement will be a positive change to ensure the protection of residents.
“Random people can’t just walk in and use the bathroom key and roam around Humphrey,” Taylor said. “I think it’s a good measure to protect the residents of Humphrey to prevent little thefts and whatnot.”
Janz said that a lot of the future of the program depends on what students have to say about it. She said that these opinions will be taken into account and used to adjust for the following fall semester.
“We thought it would be helpful to run a pilot before we went all out and to seek student’s feedback. We want to make sure it’s working for everyone,” Janz said. “Our goal at the current moment is to ensure that all the residence halls and university apartments are ready to operate by fall so let’s test the waters now in this spring and make sure we are ready come August.”
This story was written by Phoebe Goebel. She can be reached at [email protected]
