In a letter to the RPI community last week, Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations William Walker informed the campus of an update to the security policies that would further restrict access to the Folsom Library and the Voorhees Computing Center to community members with Rensselaer ID cards. While we appreciate the efforts taken to ensure the safety of the campus and community, we do not think that these recent steps will be effective; on the contrary, we believe they may instead prove to be counterproductive.
Card access on this campus is typically enforced by RFID readers like the ones already in place at the entrances to the library and VCC. Until recently, they were only used in the evening hours. During the day, however, those venues see a lot more traffic, and people frequently enter and leave the buildings in close succession. Common courtesy dictates that at least one person hold the doors open in those situations.
This concept is already well-illustrated in the residence halls, particularly on Freshman Hill. Individuals who want to get into a dorm, whether to visit a friend or to trash a bathroom, typically need only wait until someone else with access comes along. There is no reason to think that this would hold any less true elsewhere on campus. In just about every case, an intruder could pretend to be a student, professor, staff member, or even delivery guy, and the revamped security would be thwarted by simple manners.
Even if that wasn’t the case, however, the new policy would still have crippling flaws. A trespasser with violent intentions would have little trouble forcing his or her way into either the VCC or the library. Someone brandishing a weapon would probably be able to “convince” a passer-by to open the door. Even if that failed, the main entrances could hardly be considered secure—exceptionally large glass windows would probably not hinder a determined attacker for long.
Thus, these new restrictions merely provide the illusion of security. In fact, the mirage probably will do more harm than good. The card access system is far from flawless; it is not uncommon to hear complaints from people who were locked out of buildings that they shouldn’t have been. Such problems are a byproduct of a complicated electronic system, and though they are usually fixed quickly, they still create headaches. Needlessly increasing the dependence on card readers will only result in a greater opportunity for failure and a broader pool of affected individuals when something does go wrong.
Finally, the library in particular is a resource to the entire regional community, not just current RPI students, faculty, and staff. It is an important facility for local research in science and engineering and several other fields. Furthermore, it is a branch of the federal depository at the Troy Public Library, and it therefore houses many documents of public interest. Rensselaer is host to a wealth of knowledge, and we shouldn’t be discouraging the community from taking advantage of it with ineffective security policies.
