Nathans dismissed Glazer’s suggestion that regulations could force older students to defer to first-years in Yard common areas.
“Students...would rightly assume that the FDO can’t and won’t stand guard over the common spaces 24/7 to keep unauthorized folks out,” Nathans says.
PIGGIES ON HARVARD’S BACK
A different type of unauthorized individuals—non-Harvard affiliates—can enter the building through “piggybacking,” which refers to persons entering a building in the wake of someone who has swiped in. While the administration and the Masters have expressed concern that 24-hour UKA will increase this practice, Glazer argues that the current system encourages piggybacking because students swipe in non-residents, assuming they live in another House and simply do not have access.
But Nathans maintains that if current situations are any indication, 24-hour UKA would only worsen the problem in first-year dorms.
“In fact, simply watching students readily piggyback folks in—even folks they don’t know...suggests that piggybacking will if anything become more widespread when it is assumed that everyone who ‘looks like a student’ has legitimate access to the Yard and Union dorms,” she writes in an e-mail.
Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67 acknowledges that there are legitimate arguments on both sides, but points to Yale’s experience with UKA as evidence supporting Nathans’ stance. The university was promised 24-hour UKA would cut down on piggybacking—but the practice did not decrease.
“In fact they have reported to us that students can still be sloppy about it,” he says. But Dingman adds that he doesn’t think this should be enough to eliminate the possibility of instating 24-hour UKA.
And Council president Matt W. Mahan ’05 says that, with or without full-time UKA, piggybacking is inevitable.
“To some degree, people will piggyback other people in...That’s kind of a moot point,” he says. “It’s human nature.”
Dingman says the student discussion of the issue is positive, and he is “heartened” by Quincy House’s experiment with 24-hour UKA.
“I guess that I’ve always felt that the fact that freshmen can get in one another’s dorms without trouble makes me not so wary about opening this up further,” Dingman says. “On the other hand, I greatly respect the Masters’ opinions and I’d be very interested in hearing what they have to say.
“I’m hopeful that people will keep discussing this with an open mind,” Dingman continues. “Ultimately it will be the Dean of the College’s decision.”
—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.