Lock changes may eliminate risks from lost keys

Students have reported locksmiths working all week to 're-pin' Quad doors, meaning the control keys will no longer fit them. All dorm rooms in the Quadrangle will soon have their locks repinned, making the Quad control keys missing since August 31 virtually worthless, sources told The Daily Pennsylvanian this week. Best Locking Systems of Philadelphia employees have been working in the Quad since the middle of the week, and the company's employees told a number of students they were repinning locks throughout the dormitory, students said. The locks are being altered so the control keys missing since August 31 will no longer be able to remove lock cores, allowing the keyholder easy access to any room in the affected areas using an extraction tool like a flat-head screwdriver, according to University employees who requested anonymity. Even though the old control keys will not work, students will not need new keys to get into their rooms. Repinning the locks only affects the control keys. And the repinning -- if done correctly -- will be enough to virtually eliminate the security risk posed by the missing set of control keys, Phil Paul of the West Philadelphia Locksmith Company said. "If they're repinning, they're getting rid of the old control keys," Paul explained. "There's no other need [for action]." It was not immediately clear how much of the Quad has already been repinned, but Quad residents said they saw locksmiths repinning parts of Community House, Butcher-Speakman/Class of '28 and Goldberg House, among other sections. Because University officials have not revealed what locations are affected by the missing control keys, it is impossible to determine if the repinning efforts needed to extend beyond the Quad to eliminate the security risk. But University staff working behind the desks of the three high rises said they had not seen locksmiths enter the buildings within the past few days. Associate Vice Provost of University Life Larry Moneta refused to comment on any issues related to the lost keys, and Associate Director of Residential Operations and Maintenance Al Zuino and Best Locking Systems of Philadelphia President Curtis Sharpp did not return repeated phone calls. In an interview for a previous Daily Pennsylvanian story, Zuino and Moneta both acknowledged that the University was considering repinning some of the affected locks. Although locks are normally replaced every five years, Moneta said in Monday's DP that the missing keys would likely force the University to begin replacing locks sooner. This week's repinning of Quad locks comes two and a half weeks after the ring of control keys was lost in the Quad during move-in. On August 31, a locksmith inserted one of the keys into a lock and walked away from the key-ring. When he returned, the keys were gone, University employees said. The worker was subsequently suspended for two weeks, according to several sources. One element that has been debated since the beginning is the magnitude of the security risk created by the missing control keys. "It's easy to over-react to such a situation; it's easy to forget our most basic experience in these residences, which is that security derives from a strong sense of community -- people knowing one another, and watching out for one another," said English professor and Van Pelt College House Faculty Master Al Filreis -- who is also the chairperson of the Residential Faculty Council. But Quad freshmen expressed surprise not only at having been unaware that a control key was missing, but that locksmiths were going to be working on their doors. "I suppose it's better late than never," College freshman and Quad resident Jacob Stahl said. "[But] if they knew about this for two and a half weeks, I do think they should have done this sooner. The one thing I trust is the lock on my door."