At 10 p.m. last Wednesday, all residence halls' exterior lobbies were locked. They'll stay that way permanently. In a move that came on the heels of the Virginia Tech shooting, the Ohio University administration offered up a supposedly new plan to deter crime on campus.
But to cut to the heart of the matter, what will locking the doors solve? This is still an open and friendly campus. If a person is standing outside the building waiting, people are going to let them into the building.
This recent change is hardly a change at all. Most residence halls have locked doors beyond the outer ones. It is possible that a locked lobby could prevent harm, if a person is determined to cause violence and panic, 10 feet and a locked door probably makes very little difference.
This recommendation to lock outer doors also is not something new. The OU Police Department recommended it in 1999. Clearly, this was a PR move made in the wake of Virginia Tech after administrators ignored a police recommendation for about eight years.
If OU wants to make real changes to help students feel more secure on campus, more needs to be done than simply locking doors. A drastic, though tangible measure might be stationing somebody in the lobby of these buildings 24 hours a day. That is not necessarily the best solution, but it is at least a real one. Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Post executive editors.
17 Archives
Decision to lock residence hall lobbies little more than PR move
