Quad unites under common key

One key for one Quad seems to be the new policy for the three college houses lining Spruce Street.

Whether in Ware, Riepe or Fisher-Hassenfeld, this semester each exterior door and bathroom in the Quadrangle has a universal lock, to which all residents have a "University key."

Quad residents now carry two keys -- one to open exterior doors and another to open their rooms -- as opposed to the previous one key per resident.

Each floor also has the choice of whether or not to lock its bathrooms -- a change from the last few year's policy of totally locked doors -- satisfying students who prefer to go to the bathroom key-free.

Previously, each of the Quad's three houses had its own separate lock, preventing residents of other houses from using the outside entrance without having someone open the door for them first.

The policy was first enacted in the fall of 2002 when a local man entered the Quad and attempted to sexually assault a female student.

There have been no similar problems since that incident, but residents have complained vocally about the locked-doors policy since it was implemented in 2002.

The majority of returning Quad residents welcome the change.

"Since last year, people have been saying they need to do this," two-year Quad resident and College sophomore Sam Cohn said.

Last spring members of the Undergraduate Assembly approached College Houses and Academic Services Director Leslie Delauter about the Quad lock initiative.

According to both Delauter and UA member Dipal Patel, an Engineering sophomore, a survey revealed an overwhelming preference for universal locks and unlocked bathrooms.

Patel said that the lock change should stop frustrated students from propping open doors and breaking locks for easy access, both of which have been problems in the past.

She added that universal locks will foster more community sentiment among Quad residents.

Cohn agrees that one lock should bring the Quad's three houses together.

"The college-house system [in the Quad] is ... bogus anyway. It divides the Quad into three places, and it doesn't need to," Cohn said.

Many Quad dwellers, however, don't feel that universal locks will seriously alter the social scene.

College senior Greg Meila, a second-year residential adviser, along with College junior and three-year Quad resident Alison Weiss, said that the new locks hardly influence social life since Quad residents have always discovered how to navigate hallways to another house.

However, Meila and Cohn agree that universal locks make it easier to visit friends in other houses.

The change will not make it any easier for non-Quad residents to visit friends, though.

Students who call another College House home still cannot use their keys to open the individual doorways.

College senior Flora Chang said that the Quad locks pose inconveniences when she's visiting friends. She said she would prefer unlocked exterior doors instead.

Chang added that, except for Spring Fling, "the security is enough. ... Everyone in the Quad is a Penn student."

But Delauter said that the CHAS survey found that although students felt confident in the security provided by the Quad's upper and lower gates, the majority favored locked exterior doors for greater security.

Though some non-Quad residents may still consider the "one-lock" policy insufficient, Quad residents seem to be discovering more and more conveniences of the system everyday.

"If it's raining and you come in at Lower Quad, you don't have to walk all the way to Upper Quad in the rain to get where you want to go," Cohn said.

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