University Daily Kansan, April 29, 1981
Page 3
Key check-out policy disputed
By KATHY MAAG Staff Reporter
The student approached the residence hall desk, and with the usual harried look, told the desk assistant she was locked out of her room.
The student was given the room key and gained access to someone else's room.
The desk assistant asked the student to sign a signature card. She forged a resident's name. When asked for a KUID number, she promptly recited the correct six digits of the resident's ID.
A SIMILAR CASE of forgery and mistaken identity in Oliver Hall has angered a resident, Jane Logan, Topeka sophomore, who contends that the desk's safety precautions are not adequate.
"It makes me extremely furious that it could happen," she said. "I don't expect the desk assistant to know everyone in the hall, but I find it rather scary that someone could unlawfully interfere with anyone else's rooms with relative ease.
"If it happened to them, it could happen again to me. A guy could get the key and hide in the room."
This type of breaking and entering rarely happens, Fred McElenhill, residential programs director, said.
"I think we have built in as many safeguards as we can without any undue hardships on the person who lives in the room," he said. "If there is a question, a staff member should accompany the resident to the room with a master key and require them to provide additional information."
FREQUENTLY, it is a friend who
checks out the resident's key to borrow something. McEihenie said.
"There's usually a secret bargain made at the beginning of the year to let students know they have been said. "We do ask for information only the person entitled to the key should. To the best of my knowledge, theft has not occurred from this institution because barons."
But Dale Heckethorn, McPherson freshman and an Elsworth resident, said that his next-door neighbor's room was locked into after some checked out the key.
"They store some stuff from his room last semester," he said. "I don't mind the procedure because I leave my key in there, and they could ask for more identification."
LOGAN SUGGESTED picture IDs and further questioning of residents who wanted to check out keys. LOGAN SUGGESTED IDs would not eliminate the problem.
"Usually when you're locked out of a room, your ID is in your purse or waistlet inside the room. he said. "Many of the people who they're dealing with, anyway they're dealing with, anyway."
"I don't know if the benefit would justify the cost. And if the University is going to have picture IDs, we'd be duplicating."
But Logan said that picture identification would be worth the cost.
"If the cost is of major importance, why don't we just dispense with locks and doors?" she said. "Then anyone wished to enter a resident's room would not even have to go to the trouble of bothering the desk assistant."
"I realize desk assistants are human and make mistakes. But they're taking my money to pay them, and it's their job to be efficient, not mine."
Commission picks firm for storm-water project
The City Commission decided last night to sign a contract with Burns and McDonnell, a Kansas City, Mo., engineering firm, for the development of a master plan for the management of storm water drainage.
The commissioners made the decision after an hour and a half of reading over the proposed contract section by section with Lawrence Dixon, who wrote the differences between his wishes and those of Commissioner Nancy Shontz.
Schwada refused to comment on the city's action, but Lawrence planner Brian Kubota said that he was pleased with the Commission's action.
Schwada and Kubota meet with Commissioner Barkley Clark and other city officials yesterday to voice their objections to the plan.
They said that the contract was too restrictive and they were concerned that the resulting plan would increase costs to developers and to consumers because of stricter regulations on new building.
IF SOMEONE REALLY wanted to break into a room, they probably could, Margue Greenfield, GSP resident director, said.
"We do the most security we can," she said. "That seems to work pretty well, but sometimes someone else gets in a room. We've only had one or two incidents that I know of. It's mostly friends going in to borrow something."
Mike Arnoldy, Overland Park sophomore and Oliver Hall resident, said that the check-out procedures were adequate.
"I guess if something happened to me, it would bother me, but it hasn't. I know a lot of the desk assistants, and they would not let anyone check my outfit."
Amy Handelman, Overland Park sophomore and an Oliver desk assistant, said that desk assistants were getting tougher on key check-outs.
"If it's someone I don't know, I ask for their ID and the signature," she said in privacy. But if it's someone I know and I know the number, I don't ask the information.
"This is the first time I have ever heard of a problem. All we can do is try to prevent it from happening again by cracking down."
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