Guards across campus are checking photo identification for all individuals who try to enter residence halls at night.
University Police Chief Kevin Hay said the policy is being enforced after “multiple incidents” where non-students were caught entering buildings with someone else's GWorld.
“If a GWorld card is stolen, then we need to ensure no criminals are entering a GW facility under false pretenses,” Hay said. “It may take a few seconds longer, but we believe its worth it to ensure safety.”
He declined to comment on which halls would see added security measures or detail the specific incidents that prompted them.
Not all buildings will require photo identification, Hay said, adding the number of “documented incidents” at a hall will determine if monitors enforce the policy.
Freshman halls like Thurston Hall and Potomac House enforce the rule 24 hours a day, requiring all non-student guests to sign in.
Monitors at major residence halls like Ivory Tower, City Hall, Guthridge Hall and South Hall have since last week required photo identification eight hours a night. Buildings like Ivory Tower have seen lines of more than 40 students on weekends as guards check cards.
If a guard sees that a person does not match a GWorld picture, UPD will investigate if that card was stolen or loaned, University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said.
Visitors are already required to present identification and sign into residence halls at night if they are not affiliated with GW.
Residence Hall Association President Jacob Thayer said the photo identification policy has not been implemented in residence halls across the Mount Vernon Campus.
The University employs 90 student entrance monitors and 21 security officers in each of the two dozen residence halls.
The ID checks come a year after the University increased residence hall security to crack down on "piggybacking," or cases of individuals following residents into buildings.
In October 2011, a man followed a group of students into The West End and allegedly punched students.
This is so annoying! When I started at GW, only freshman dorms had UPD guards and I think we need to go back to that. Maybe it’s safer to be annoying and check everyone’s ID, but it’s so annoying and a huge incentive to abandon on-campus housing for an apartment where you can come and go and have guests without subjecting them to an uncomfortable ID-checking process. More importantly, if we as students learn that UPD will check everyone who comes in and get used to leaving our doors propped open or not behaving with caution in our apartment-style dorms, we will be in for a big surprise when we move into an actual apartment where we 1) have the liberty to come in and out without ID checks and 2) have the personal responsibility to keep ourselves and our property safe.
This is so dumb and ensures I would never choose to visit on on-campus dorm.
Having to wait in line to enter my own residence hall would piss me off, and that’s ridiculous. Thankfully I live off campus and can just walk into my apartment without having to prove my identity.
I understand what GWPD is trying to do and that security is important but there are some things that beg the question, “WTF?”
The fact that GW students have to sign in to any residence hall that they don’t live in is ridiculous, anyway…if I go here, and pay an obscene amount of money to go here, I should be able to enter any building to visit a friend or whatever if I want to.
I’m not completely against them checking IDs, but if you’re going to give a statement for the Hatchet at least know what you’re. The wait in ivory at night is much longer than a few seconds…
Here’s the deal, this is an inconvenience and it wastes the time of both students and UPD officers and gives GW the feel of a police state. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For the thousands of students who live in on-campus housing there have only been a handful of incidents, which should be handled on a case to case basis. This is a blatant GW over reaction that students should be more upset about.
All the dorms at other universities I’ve visited in large cities have already been checking IDs and having guests sign in for years ….
Yes, other universities in cities have been checking IDs and having guests sign in for years. I applaud GW for taking this issue more seriously, since there were incidents last year with students being assaulted by intruders inside the dorms. In response to “anonymous,” in the real world people often prefer apartment buildings with doormen (if they can afford the higher rent) because having someone standing in the entrance is a deterrent to potential intruders. So, GW students should feel fortunate to have the added security this year, and should demand equal security at all GW residence halls. It makes no sense that some freshman dorms have 24 hr security while others do not. And for all the juniors and seniors who find this added security so burdensome and objectionable, move off campus. The university does not require that you live in the residence halls.
Yes, but a doorman would/should greet you with class and friendliness. “Good morning, sir (or your name)” “How are you?”. Yes they keep out the riffraff but also should not treat you in an adversarial manner.
Compare that with UPD.
Okay, well that is a separate but important issue. Students and security officers should be treating one another with courtesy and mutual respect. If this is not the case, something should be done to improve the relationship. I’m sure that some security guards are being rude to students, but I also know that some students are verbally abusing security guards for doing their jobs. Abandoning an initiative that is intended to protect students (and which most likely does and will continue to protect students) because individual students and security guards are having personal conflicts is not the answer.
Take that officer in the picture. He is not smiling. He does not look friendly and community relations/ customer service oriented.
I have never lived in a doorman building, but have worked in secured office buildings in Manhattan. The staff (doormen, almost always men, and security and lobby personnel, both male and female)have been professional in appearance and demeanor, greeting employees by name if possible, trying to make quick friendly conversations (weather, sports, vacations- and the one guy who regretting voting for Obama- quite another story) but never showing an adversarial attitude toward employees and tenants.
UPD it seems has a conflicting interest. They are not working for the students, as a building staff works for the interests of its tenants.
A simpler solution is 2 factor authentication, something you have and something you know. Add a PIN reader to each dorm so that you have to present your card and enter the PIN. This avoids entering with lost cards (you don’t know the PIN to a card you find on the ground and hence it’s useless). Sure there is some expense in adding PIN readers to every dorm but it’s cheaper than guards. The HID GWorld cards already accommodate this.
Sounds great, but this does not stop piggy backers.
True, to solve that problem you would need to combine 2 factor authentication with turnstyles.
Get real Mr. Fox. Yes, community relations is important with the university but the UPD have a job to do. They are not professional doormen in Manhattan, they have a responsibility to protect the university and the students. I have witnessed some of the issues they handled on campus and they have done so in a professional manner. The students might see this as an inconvenience but UPD is doing their job.
Another GW Parent: There was a hand full, at most, of incidents last year. They should be dealt with individually. Not like this. This is inconvenient to each and every student. I shouldn’t have to tap-in at a desk when I tap-in to get in the front door, the elevator, the stairs, the basement… GWorld borrowing is a made up problem by UPD to provide an excuse of expanding their watch over the students. Living in a city requires some sort of responsibility on the individuals part. That also involves watching who you let into your building. This just goes to show GW is not willing to trust their students. And for those of you suggesting those complaining should live off campus, many of those buildings don’t have people watching the doors either. It’s time for GW to learn that, as students, we are responsible. It will much better prepare us all for the real world.