Turnstiles should simplify EC sign-ins next fall

At East Campus, Columbia students will be able to get the party started faster next semester.

The entryway to East Campus will be reconfigured and three turnstiles installed by September, allowing residents and guests faster entry to the building, according to Scott Wright, vice president of student and administrative services.

It’s a solution to the problems created when weekend parties attract lines of students, obstructing the single entrance.

“People are usually drunk and loud and mill about, getting in people’s way,” Noah Baron, CC ’11, said. “There’s usually a lot of freshmen. It’s towards the beginning of the semester. People don’t have a lot of work.”

Entering residents and guests will use two separate turnstiles, and people exiting will use the third. Since there will be separate space for guests to form a line, residents will have more room to get in and out—a change from the current layout, where everyone enters and exits through the same doors.

The entrance to EC gets “overwhelmed from time to time,” Joel Gombiner, CC ’11, a resident of EC, said. “You’re in a high-traffic dorm. The security guards are doing their best.”

Security officers will also begin using new software to scan the IDs of residents to see if they are authorized to sign guests in, which should also expedite the process.

While the current system merely recognizes that students live on campus, the new program will identify current EC residents immediately. Security will still require guests to deposit a photo ID upon entry and provide a signature.

Columbia will be testing the scanning system at EC, the dorm with the most guest traffic, and will expand to other dorms over winter break if the program is effective, Wright said.

If the renovations are ineffective, security will increase the number of staff members operating the EC entryway.

The renovations to EC were prompted by an incident last October, when security officials barred students who were not EC residents from entering the building after an unusually long line formed outside the building. Non-residents were locked out of the building for half an hour as 200 students waited, said Chris Elizondo, SEAS ’11 and outgoing president of the Engineering Student Council. Students also claimed to have been verbally abused by the security guards on duty when they questioned the sign-in policy.

Elizondo, who first proposed renovations to East Campus through ESC, added that the changes should decrease the wait from an average of 80-100 seconds to 8-10 seconds maximum. Columbia College Student Council members also spoke with Wright about the issue in November.

Changes would be welcome, since signing guests into EC is difficult and time consuming, said Lizzie Americo, CC ’11, who has lived in EC for three years.

“I should be able to get into my place of living without having to wait,” Americo said. “I have friends from New York City who don’t have drivers licenses. I have to go to the public safety building to print them a temporary ID. Sometimes I try to sneak them in instead.”

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