I understand and fully believe that safety should be a top priority for DU and its students. That being said, there is a current “safety” measure that fails to actually keep us safe and is instead an unnecessary hindrance to each student. I am talking about the fact that each residential building restricts who can go into them based on who lives there past a certain hour.
For example, I live in Nelson Hall. If I wanted to go to Nagel Hall to get a late night burrito, I would be able to swipe in using my Pioneer ID card at 9:59 p.m. At 10:00 p.m., I would swipe my card and the little red light would go off and I would be denied access to the building. This is quite unfortunate considering that the Nagel dining areas stays open until 10:30 p.m. and I still want my burrito.

Now you might be saying to yourself, why don’t you just knock on the door? Well, that is a valid option; however, there might not always be someone there to let you in. My problem with the “lockout” is in the principle. Just because I do not live in Nagel does not mean that I have less of a right to access the dining area during its hours of operation as someone who lives in Nagel. The same is true of the C-stores in both Halls and J-Mac.

I understand the rationale behind letting, for example, only-Nelson residents into Nelson past a certain point, but in practice, it is flawed. Someone who wants access to Nagel at 11:00 p.m. need only wait for someone to exit the building and then enter the building as they leave. In essence, the idea that this “lockout” keeps us safe is nothing more than imagination.
But there is still a way in which we can maintain the appearance of safety and allow access for all DU students to services in each building. Simply allow each DU student with a current DU ID to access any residential building up until the time at which the service in that building (i.e. C-store or Nagel dining area) closes. This will still keep non-residents out of the buildings at decent times, and not restrict the options available to one resident as opposed to another. Otherwise, only Nagel residents will get to enjoy a late night burrito.