Increasing security in the form of more guards, the other proposed solution, would not be cheap, and would have to continue indefinitely without necessarily being effective. Changing the locks would be a one-time expense and would last for years.

Some might argue that, as a result of these incidents, first-years would have to remember to take their keys with them whenever they leave their rooms. First of all, in most Yard dorms, students need their keys to enter the restrooms, so they take their keys with them even when staying in the building anyway. Plus, I have faith that first-years would be able to handle remembering their keys, even if it takes getting locked out of their rooms a few times.

But the most distressing and serious result of this string of burglaries was mentioned in the Crimson article: students "are becoming suspicious of their fellow students." If we want to have a true learning community, we need to be sure that we can trust one another. While I cannot possibly imagine that students have been committing these crimes, it is essential that no one have such suspicions, as they can lead to a breakdown of the unique community we have in Harvard dorms. The only way that we can be certain that such suspicions do not exist is to be certain that there are no burglaries. The only way to do that is to change the locks to ones that self-lock.

Jonathan M. Gribetz '02

Oct. 13, 1999

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Change of Locale the Answer

To the editors: