The University of Minnesota will install door locks at on-campus residence hall bathrooms. The security measure will leverage brass keys and enable only those students living in the dorms to access the bathroom facilities.

According to a report from The Minnesota Daily, the University’s Housing and Residential Life (HRL) committee plans to add locks to all residential hall bathrooms to boost campus security. But questions over the decision to utilize keys instead of card access via the student U Card for entry has been raised by students on campus.

The Minnesota Student Association (MSA) is pushing for HRL to have bathrooms accessible by U Cards instead, going so far as to pen a resolution to the security measure to include the U Card.

The resolution concerns “the installation of U Card restricted access on residence hall bathroom entrance doors and the installation of full-length stall doors in residence hall bathrooms.”

Members of the MSA point out that most students carry their U Cards constantly, and that U Card access to the bathrooms would be more convenient and efficient for students. The MSA believes one possible reason for the use of keys instead of U Cards is the possibility for future rebuilds or renovations at older residence halls.

The door locks will be installed at all main bathroom doors at Frontier Hall, Centennial Hall, Territorial Hall, Pioneer Hall, Comstock Hall, Bailey Hall and 17th Avenue Hall, according to Susan Stubblefield, interim director of Housing and Residential Life at the University of Minnesota.

“With feedback from our residents and parents, we determined that adding locks to residential bathrooms would provide extra security in buildings that did not have locks on community bathroom entrance doors,” wrote Stubblefield in a statement to The Minnesota Daily.

Student residents living in the seven residence halls included in the initiative can expect to see locks on the main entrance to the bathrooms in time for next fall.

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