The Facts: Students will no longer be allowed to enter Carmichael Complex — Carmichael Gymnasium, Carmichael Recreation Center and the Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center — without their All-Campus cards. The change is being put in place to facilitate student safety and expedite the entrance process.
Our Opinion: Carmichael Complex should not punish students for its inability to properly police the facility’s entrances.
In an effort to “make gym access Safe, Fast, and Efficient,” Carmichael Complex is reducing its quality of service.
Since Jan. 2008, students have been allowed to enter the complex by telling their student ID number to the desk attendants at the entrances.
Starting Oct. 12, students will once again have to “Carry A. Card” with them at all times.
The program was a response to students’ desires to enter the gym without the weight of their possessions. It was effective and convenient for students and it allowed them to skip going to a locker during what is often a short break during their busy days.
The facility, which is trying to encourage students to engage in physical activity, is actually discouraging it by making the process more cumbersome.
If everyone swiped a card at check-in, it would make students’ entrance faster by a couple seconds. But how many extra minutes will students lose when they have to unnecessarily take their things to a locker?
The change in policy simply indicates that the desk attendants are incapable of performing a simple task like matching a person’s picture, which comes up when an ID number is entered, with a face — perhaps the attendants should look up from their textbooks for a couple seconds.
Chelsea Locklear, an employee at the Carmichael Complex and junior in international studies, said that many students, particularly freshman, did not have pictures associated with their ID numbers. She said this could be caused by glitches in the system or as a result of delayed uploading from the All-Campus card office.
If this is the case, take temporary pictures for students until the All-Campus pictures appear in the center’s RecTrak system. This wouldn’t require extra equipment; Carmichael Complex already has cameras suitable for this task.
Everyone on campus wants the University’s facilities to be safe, and it’s completely understandable that non-patron entry requires attention. These students or other visitors do not pay for the facilities and should not get to share in their use. If nothing else, their presence is a liability to the complex and the University.
Nonetheless, students should not suffer because of poor enforcement on the part of Carmichael Complex.
If the attendants and supervisors used the tools they already had in place, this wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place.
