Winthrop House Adds Name to Universal Keycard List

Today, Winthrop House will become the third undergraduate house, following Quincy and Cabot, to experiment with universal keycard access. The House will now be open to all students from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Undergraduate Council president Beth A.Stewart `00, a resident of Winthrop House, said, "We not only had to convince [Winthrop House] Master [Paul D.] Hanson, but convince other houses so that he wouldn't have to go it alone."

Student reaction to the move was positive.

"It makes it easier to get together with friends for dinner," said Miriam E. Droller '00.

According to Stewart, a survey of Winthrop House residents taken last year revealed that 96 percent were in favor of universal keycard access.

Overwhelming student support spurred the house to take action, Stewart said.

"Master Hanson was very receptive from the beginning...He took student opinion into account," she said.

But first, Stewart said they had to respond to Hanson's concerns about safety.

According to Stewart, this involved three main tasks: making sure other houses would go along with the initiative, ironing out the hours for universal access and gathering student feedback.

Stewart said house administrators didn't want 24-hour access because the night-time security guard in Winthrop leaves at 11:30 p.m.

Responding to questions about safety, Stewart said that universal keycard access will actually make the house safer, by eliminating the predilection of Winthropresidents to let anyone who asks into the house onthe belief that he or she has a legitimate reasonto be there.

"Security and safety are issues we have to bemindful of...Masters worry a lot about that," saidHanson, who is also Florence Corliss Lamontprofessor of divinity.

Hanson said that a balance had to be reachedbetween student concerns and safety concerns.

"The student concern was the desire to have theability to be accessible to each other without theelement of locked doors...There's acommunity-building component," Hanson said.

At the same time, Hanson said he was concernedabout the possibility of increased "danger...to astudent's person, in some cases, and to propertyin others."

While Stewart said Hanson was concerned thatWinthrop House would not be the lone house toadopt universal keycard access, Hanson said thiswasn't the case.

"I wasn't waiting for some other House to proveif this was a wise decision or not," he said. "Theprocess just took that long"

"Security and safety are issues we have to bemindful of...Masters worry a lot about that," saidHanson, who is also Florence Corliss Lamontprofessor of divinity.

Hanson said that a balance had to be reachedbetween student concerns and safety concerns.

"The student concern was the desire to have theability to be accessible to each other without theelement of locked doors...There's acommunity-building component," Hanson said.

At the same time, Hanson said he was concernedabout the possibility of increased "danger...to astudent's person, in some cases, and to propertyin others."

While Stewart said Hanson was concerned thatWinthrop House would not be the lone house toadopt universal keycard access, Hanson said thiswasn't the case.

"I wasn't waiting for some other House to proveif this was a wise decision or not," he said. "Theprocess just took that long"