URBANA — The end of Uni as an open building is soon to come.

By the middle of September, all Uni entrances will be locked. The only way in will be by possessing a prox card, which is scanned by security mechanisms at the three entrances. Uni students and staff will have to get accustomed to carrying their prox cards whenever they’re at school.

In addition to the locked doors, Uni will also implement cameras by the entrances. These cameras will allow the school to monitor who goes into the building.

However, the system is not yet ready even though the security mechanisms are functional. Uni is currently waiting for the transom windows — windows above the door entrances — to be removed so that the first-floor hallway can be ventilated.

If this cannot be done, then central air conditioning will be installed. The mechanics are expected to get this done in a couple of weeks. Once this is completed, Uni doors will be locked.

“I know that all of Urbana and Champaign schools have locked all of their doors,” said Assistant Director Sue Kovacs. “They have had theirs for several years, and we are very behind in this.”

Why the new system?

The idea of tightening Uni security was first brought up four years ago by the University of Illinois provost and chancellor. However, the last major school shooting had been the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.

As well, establishing a prox card system would be expensive. According to Director Steve Epperson, the cost to install the current system was about $35,000. So at the time, Kovacs, Student Council, and former Director Kassie Patton successfully resisted the security change.

But after the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007, security changes became necessary for schools nationwide.

According to Kovacs, the U of I started looking at easy targetable buildings on its campus that had poor security and emergency communication. Uni fit the description. As a result, the provost and chancellor have ultimately paid for and required Uni to lock its doors as part of being on the U of I campus.

“We didn’t have much say in it; it just went through,” said Student Council executive president Isaac Chambers.

A good thing?

Views on the prox card system have been varied. Although the increased protection is a definite benefit to the school, the prox cards will bring serious constraints on the freedom students have enjoyed at Uni.

“I personally disapprove of the prox card system, because it means the school is buying into the ideas of fear and paranoia that the media and Bush administration have been attempting to instill in Americans,” said sophomore Katayun Salehi. “First it will be prox cards, but then the administrators will want to monitor the students so we don't bring in anything dangerous ourselves. Cameras, metal detectors, even policemen could be added to Uni's security system; the prox cards are probably not going to be the end of it.”

“The prox card system might give some people a sense of security, but I don’t think it will work,” said junior Ethan Schiller. “I don’t like how the school needs the doors to be locked.”

Uni has had the tradition of being an open building for a very long time. Despite the many complaints about the new system, Kovacs knows that Uni students will adjust to the change.

“My personal memory of Uni being an open building goes back to 1983,” said Kovacs. “Uni kids will deal with it because they are smart people who understand that the actions on a college campus will affect a school on a college campus. They won't like it — heck, I don't like it — but they will know it is a fact of life and deal with it.”