Resident advisors are now restricted to 24-hour access to buildings in their nightly rounds as opposed to all buildings.
“Fortunately, in recent years, incidents that necessitated RAs outside their duty area to assist have been rare,” Director of Residence Life Grace Reynolds wrote in an email. “We concluded RAs didn’t need access to buildings outside their duty areas and made the change.”
Harvest Gil ‘25 has been an RA since her sophomore year.
“[When we were told of the] switch to fob access for only your part of the building, [it was] a better idea, in my opinion,” Gil said. “Because of safety reasons, it’s better to have fob access [just] for your area, and if you need to get a hold of somebody who has fob access for another part of the campus, you can contact them through the RA phone number.”
This change follows an incident in the spring in which a resident advisor key fob was used to break into several fraternity and sorority houses.
“I feel like a lot of residents feel a lot … safer, especially after what happened last year,” Gil said. “The most important thing is that everyone on campus feels safe where you’re living and not worried about somebody coming in.”
According to Bryan Osipower ‘26, a first-time resident advisor, there have been no troubles regarding a reduction in building access; however, Gil said that the changes do come with certain inconveniences.
“If somebody was trying to get into Gates [and] I know that they live in Gates, [if] they don’t have their fob, I can’t let them in,” Gil said. “You have to wait until somebody in that community lets them in, which isn’t that big of a negative, but it is something that can be a little annoying.”
“Overall, the positives of … a safer community are way more important than that,” she added.
