CAMPUS COMMENT COLUMN: Other door needed in library
By HOLLI L. RAPP
It’s déjà vu, entering and exiting the library. This year, students and staff enter and exit the library through the same door. What used to be the exit is now blocked off.
Library staff members say the change was done for security, but is it really in the best interest of everyone here?
At busy times, some students don’t want to get up close to a person that they have never met or even get hit by someone’s 20-pound bookbag that takes up the entire doorway.
Having only one exit for students could cause a safety problem. If 50 students are in the library and there is an emergency, such as the recent bomb threat, 50 people trying to get out of the library at one time could be very dangerous.
The other door is for librarians only, and although it could be used in an emergency, it would take a person with a great deal of athletic ability to get over all of the obstacles to get to the door.
Eliminating one door may have been done for security, but when students hurry to the library just before exams and there are 20 people waiting to get in and out, the librarians will think differently.