The check-in policies at Samford are unnecessarily strict and complicated.
Sure, as Samford students we should be held to a certain level of honor and credibility, but I think the
regulations on the check-in policy have become unreasonable.
Regardless of whether or not you
think that check-in is necessary, the majority of students can agree that it is a tedious task.
The process is as follows: You must find one of the offices closest to you, give your name, phone number, room number, and the guest’s ID card.
After this you take a pink or white slip with you for as long as your guest is checked in. It doesn’t sound too hard and it really isn’t.
It is however an unnecessary waste of time and resources for a university that is functioning in the digital era.
The reality of the matter is students still get caught sneaking in. I think the best way to stop this would be to make check-in more easily accessible.
Generally, check-in is just a tedious process to go through in order for someone of the opposite sex to be permitted in a room.
With the exception of buildings like Vail and Evergreen, finding residence life offices on campus can
be time consuming. With Smith and West Village, they can be especially hard to access because the doors to the offices are always locked.
So, unless you live in a building with one of these offices, your keycard won’t get you in. Because of this, in order to get inside and get checked in, you have to call the number on the door.
Unfortunately, there have been many occasions where no one is in the office to answer the phone, which means you will have to wait for them to return to the office and call again.
In Beeson Woods however, the door to Evergreen is almost always unlocked during check-in hours. Nonetheless, check-in is still hard to access since there is only one office controlling the check-in system for a dozen surrounding student-filled dorms.
How can Samford still wonder why it has a values violation problem?
Especially with today’s available technology, check-in could be so much easier.
My suggestion is that they create a card swipe system, that will allow the person who lives in the building to swipe first, followed by their friend to swipe second in order to have them registered.
Not only would this make check-in easier, but it would make it much more accessible.
This system could easily be applied to every building, allowing all students equal access to check-in.
In order to check-out, the door would need to be shut and the students would swipe their card to check out.
If someone didn’t check out within the time restraints, the system could
notify the Residence Life office, leaving the situation in the hands of the building’s RA.
Samford should take advantage of the available technology of today. It would make all of our day-to-day lives easier in the long run.
Jordan Dombrowski is a sophomore human development major.
