By Jennifer M. Fitzenberger
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 16, 1997

Deadbolt locks make dorm life more secure

The decision was made by the Residence Hall Association in December after a visit by the fire marshal last summer, which resulted in an order to disable the dead-bolt locks attached to the outside entrance doors, said Herb Wagner, assistant supervisor with Facilities Management Maintenance Service.

"The fire marshal said that during the occupancy of the residence halls, all of the dead-bolt locks must be removed from the doors," he said.

Wagner said the keys to the dead-bolt locks, which are used to lock the residence halls when they are not being occupied, are only held by Residence Life and other administration.

Because these keys can be lost or stolen, the fire marshal ruled that working dead-bolt locks on residence hall doors during the halls' occupation violated the fire code, Wagner said.

"The doors with working dead-bolt locks can be locked from the inside or the outside," Wagner said.

"This could create a problem if there was a fire and the doors were somehow locked. People could be trapped inside the building."

Patrick Call, Catalina-area coordinator for Residence Life, said the locks posed a safety risk for those inside of the building during winter break.

"Dead-bolting the locks would be a safety hazard for the hall directors, who are allowed to stay in the halls over break," Call said. "The hall is their actual home, and it would be too complicated to make sure they and others who have access to the halls during break had a quick way to leave the building in case of an emergency."

Facilities Management and custodial staff are the only additional persons allowed inside the residence halls during break, Call said.

"The whole process was a major undertaking, and Facilities Management did the best they could at finishing it (the project) in time," he said.

Beginning Dec. 19, workers began replacing cylinders for the new locks. He said in a period of two weeks keys were cut and locks were changed.

"Some halls have as little as eight outside entrance doors, and others, like Coronado, have as many as 30 to 40," Call said.

Call said, however, that the process did not move as quickly as he would have hoped, and as a result, many students have experienced difficulty checking back into their halls.

"We were hoping to get the new keys to the students before they left for break, but that did not go as planned," he said.

Instead, students were required to turn in their old keys and receive their new ones upon returning to their halls.

This left many students with heavy boxes and suitcases trying to unlock doors that would not open.

"Moving in was really more difficult, and we didn't know what to do," said Mark Muradian, business freshman. "We came with five heavy bags, and we had to walk all the way to the courtyard."

Muradian, a resident of Graham-Greenlee Hall, said although he thought the re-keying was an inconvenience, he believes the benefits outweigh the extra trouble.

"I guess it is for security reasons," he said. "It is better if you feel safe."

Call said, to alleviate some of the commotion of changing keys, all of the residence halls received signs which explained the re-keying plan. These signs were posted around the halls during the end of the fall semester, he said.

Many students, however, did not see the signs.

"I did not see any signs posted," Muradian said. "Not knowing about it just added to the inconvenience."

To aid in the transition to the new locks, one to two doors in each building will not be re-keyed until Dec. 21, Call said.

"We will give the students nine days to switch their keys," he said. "This should give everyone the opportunity to exchange them."

Other students did not feel the re-keying was a nuisance.

"I don't think re-keying the locks really made a difference," said Michelle Brazet, undeclared freshman and Apache-Santa Cruz resident.

She felt it could have been a problem, however, if the page hut, which houses Apache-Santa Cruz's front desk, would not have been open when she moved back in.

"I just had someone else watch my bags while I got the new key," she said. "It wasn't a big deal."