Bathrooms in Quad get lockdown

Though bathroom doors in the Quadrangle are now officially locked, technical problems and resident resistance have stuck a wad of paper towels into the gears of Penn's safety initiative. Citing a "miscommunication" as the reason for the delay, Director of College Houses and Academic Services Leslie Delauter said in an e-mail that the lock-down, originally scheduled for Feb. 3, had been completed as of Thursday. Administrators had hoped to have the new bathroom door policy in place at the start of the new year to address general security concerns, according to an e-mail sent by Woodland College House Dean Jane Rogers to Woodland residents. While not a direct response to the incident, the alleged attempted sexual assault by a man who gained unauthorized access to a female student's bedroom in the Quad would only seem to further demonstrate the rationale behind the new security policy. Some, however, are not willing to part with easy access to their restrooms without a struggle. "My hall has already stuffed toilet paper into the latch so it can't lock," Engineering senior Brian Flounders said. A resident adviser in Woodland, Flounders blames the mid-year implementation of the locked-door policy for the resentment it has caused. "I don't mind the lock rule," Flounders said. "It's just that they did it halfway through the year that pisses everyone off. "I have to take out the paper towels [from the locks], but I do have some sympathy" for the disgruntled residents, he concluded. Woodland Graduate Associate Adam Michaels confirmed that "everyone who works in the college houses in the Quad knows that there's a subset of residents who are going to try and keep the doors unlocked." "Historically in the Quad, some [doors] had been and some haven't" been locked, Michaels continued. "If you're going to lock some bathrooms, you might as well lock them all." Noting that problems with the locks themselves had prevented some residents from entering their hall bathrooms even with keys, a quick response from Facilities locksmiths has since allowed relatively trouble-free access to Quad bathrooms, Michaels said. A bathroom door in Speakman is serving as a center of grass-roots student resistance. Signed by 16 freshmen from all three Quad college houses, a petition on the door of Speakman 307 outlines the case against the Housing and Conference Services policy. Predicting "a decrease in the social appeal of being in the Quad" and "an inability to use the bathroom in any Quad dorm other than the one in which you live," the petition bears witness to the emotional response the lock-down has elicited. "I'm going to pee on the door on Feb. 3," one anonymous signatory added to the petition. Because of student tampering, most bathroom doors can still be opened without keys.

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