Faculty gate prompts Quad security fears

Poor communication within the Department of Housing and Residence Life slowed efforts to explain why a Quad turnstile allowed access to the residence without a valid PennCard. For the past couple of weeks, both students and security guards have expressed concern that the Upper Quadrangle's turnstile gate was broken -- apparently making it possible for people to enter the dormitory without sweeping a valid PennCard through the card scanner. But maintenance officials in the Department of Housing and Residence Life explained that the current device is merely a "temporary" one installed at the location while the permanent turnstile is being refurbished. They added that the turnstile -- which has been located at the Upper Quad entrance since January 9 -- is a "spare" unit that is not designed to lock every time and is functioning normally. But confusion over the turnstile may indicate a lack of communication between the residential and maintenance branches of the Department of Housing and Residence Life. The department -- created last summer after a merger of Residential Living and Residential Maintenance -- has been without a director since former Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone left the University in August. Since then, Director of Academic Programs in Residence Chris Dennis has supervised the residential living branch of the department and former Residential Maintenance Director Lynn Horner has overseen all operational services. In the case of the Quad gate, Al Zuino, associate director for residential maintenance, maintained that his branch "made our counterparts [in the residential branch] aware" that the turnstile was temporary. But Residential Operations Associate Director Gordon Rickards said he believed the turnstile gate to be broken based on an incident report filed by Quad security guards and "did not know when it would be fixed." And a security guard manning the Upper Quad entrance Sunday morning said he noticed that the turnstile had not been locking and assumed it was broken. Neither he nor other guards stationed at the entrance had been informed that the device was a temporary replacement and did not know when a properly locking turn-style would be installed. Rickards said after he had seen the incident report about the turn-style not locking he "passed the problem onto maintenance." But while residential maintenance officials claim to have informed the department about the turn-style, Rickards was unaware that the device was designed without a locking mechanism or that it was not the permanent turnstile. And SpectaGuard officials said they "did not know anything about [the turn-style not locking] currently," adding that they had not been told "anything" about the device. Zuino said although it was his intent to have a properly locking turn-style in place by the time students returned from Winter Break, there had been delays in refurbishing the original. "We are expecting the original back any day now," he added. And although Zuino said he was "fairly confident that [the turnstile gate not locking] was not a breach of security," students seemed to feel uneasy about the situation. "You can just walk through it," said College freshman Zach Klehr. Klehr explained that because the turnstile does not lock, the only way for the entrance to be secure is for security guards to make sure that a Penn Card is swiped and cleared by the scanner. But probably because guards didn't know about the temporary gate, they have not increased their vigilance for people entering the dorm without PennCards. Several students said they had noticed the turnstile not working properly and had been able to gain access to the Quad by swiping credit cards through the scanner. College freshman Dan Simon also noticed the problem and said his new practice is "to swipe and go -- I don't wait for the light anymore." Quad residents hope that the entrance will be repaired quickly to help put them at ease about security at the dormitory.