Hey, I don't blame you girl. What a bunch of whiny brats.

I have sliding glass doors in my house. Should I just leave them open and not close and lock them since anyone can get in anyway? Heh, maybe I shouldn't have a fence either, since someone can just jump over it.

Sorry, but if someone's going to kill me, I'd rather not make it easier for them.

We already have that policy. All our dorms require key cards and our rooms just have regular keys. The only time I've seen our doors propped open was last August during the move in days. I've gotten rather used to it, because there's not other way...if the doors are open longer than a minute or so an annoying buzzer goes off. If someone broke a glass or plexiglass door, then I'm sure someone might here the noise. Sacrificing everything for the sake of convenience...I wonder if they'll leave their houses and cars unlocked because, "It's annoying."

~Zoo

Apparently the lock down is nation-wide. Our doors have always been locked at night but have been left open in the past. Apparently, we've had some homeless people / runaways living in our lobby this past weekend. Locked doors will keep those people out. I've always thought our doors should be locked 24/7... but that's just me. And, now, the rest of the country.

They don't want to be "treated like children" yet they are "acting like children".

Maybe we should install the buzzers. I may suggest that at our next meeting. Thanks for the idea Zoo.

They want to be safe, but don't want to give up any of their rights. Well, guess what cookie, that's not how the world works. Yes, it will be harder to carry in your groceries, but if it prevents one crime, then guess what -- it was worth it. It's not like they have to check in with a dorm mom or anything. We aren't tracking who comes and goes and when they come and go... they just have to use a card and a key to get into the building and their rooms. Big freaking deal. Welcome to the real world.

Only three more weeks. Only three more weeks. Then, I get to have my own apartment, and I won't be in charge of anybody or anything but myself. I can't wait!

Oh...you're welcome, but it's not really my idea...just what happens in my dorm if you leave the door open.

~Zoo

It's always a pain to be the mature and sensible one, isn't it? Ahh...sometimes people just don't freakin' listen to reason...

~Zoo

Fortunately for me, my staff is wonderful. They're very careful to white-out, cover up, or take down anything the residents write or do to make me feel bad. I don't even know what all they've whited out recently, though I've seen the white out marks, I don't ask what was written, and they don't tell me. And there are some residents who are mature, smart and all around good people... but they are the non-vocal minority.



That's true. However, even though locking down the dorms is in reaction to VA Tech, it really is a smart move -- one we should have made years ago. Here's a few reasons why: 1. Naked hairy yeti man. That's right, I said it. He appears once or twice a year at one of the freshmen girl's dorms. All he's wearing are his tennis shoes. Sometimes he gets in the buildings, sometimes not.

2. Crazy Chinese Lady. We call her that because she owned one of the Chinese restaurants in my town. She managed to get in the buildings and use the showers.

3. Drug dealers. In my building last year, a group of drug dealers were walking in our building, then finding a room that was left unlocked, and they would make their drug deals there. We didn't know this until they went in a room while it was occupied. The student was asleep in his bedroom, woke up, walked into his living room, and there were the dealers. These guys were dangerous, and the student was lucky. (This is also why we tell them to lock their doors)

4. Rapist. This guy got in the building, then into an unlocked room and hid in the girl's shower. Another time, a girl woke up to find a man standing over her bed in the middle of the night.

5. The homeless. We've actually had a couple "living" in our lobby since this past weekend. They may not be dangerous, but then again, you never know.

So, while locked doors may not stop someone with a shotgun, they will stop or at least greatly hinder these people.

You gave some great examples of why to lock them. Given Zoo's Uni policy, I am a bit surprised that they went back on it. There are a lot of crazy people in the world, and most will never do what Cho did, but they can still hurt students none-the-less.

Well, in my dorm, we had something like that implemented a while ago where we have to use ID cards to get in. And if you prop the door, an alarm goes off. Kind of annoying, especially when you're bringing stuff in. And they even took it one step forward by giving all the bathrooms a keycode, to apparently keep guys from walking into the girls bathrooms or some such.

Having a keycode to enter a bathroom in a college dorm...bad idea. I mean, on more than one ocassion one would see vomit all over the outside of the door...
Not to mention how annoying it is to remember several keycodes for each of the halls your different friends hang out in.

Of course not. This is twenty-first century mother-huggin' AMERICA. Personal convenience trumps absolutely everything.

Well, what about the classrooms? Would they be locked down? I mean, even in this shooting, only two of the deaths were from a dorm room, and besides one can lock their own doors in a dorm room, so that already adds a layer of safety. You could argue that one would shoot through the doors or something, but they could probably do that to the main door if they are anything like the ones we have here.

Now, I personally don't find it to be that huge of an inconvenience having to use the keycards. Now, before I had a cell phone (I was a late comer there), it was a bit harder to see my friends, especially if it were to be something on the fly. But I guess that wouldn't be too big a problem for most people.

Even so, it would still be relatively easy for someone to mimic a resident and get in, because as far as any student knows, that person could just be a resident (unless everyone knows each other, which isn't always the case, at least not here). After all, it could be very well be the case that the person legitmately left his keycard in the room.

Now, not that I think that this is the case here, but there are times when inconvenience trumps personal safety. These are times when the inconvenience is too hight to warrant the gains in personal safety. An example would be driving. Over 40,000 people die a year here from car accidents. One could cut that number down to zero if you banned driving, but that would not be that great over all for us. But like I said, the inconvenience in having to carry a card isn't that great, and the possible gains in personal safety, might very well justify it.

You have my blanket permission, no charge - just be sure to give me credit.

They were calling it a "lock down" because all of the dorms would be locked down 24/7 which is unusual for our campus. It definitely makes more sense than allowing any and everyone wander about the building... but it is too inconvenient for the residents to pull their cards out and swipe them to get in the building rather than just pulling the doors open.