KEY CARDS BAD SOLUTION

Published Mar. 1, 2006 in "The Oklahoma Daily"

Viewable Online Here

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For most of us, the single most important piece of plastic in our wallets while we're on campus is the ubiquitous Sooner OneCard. Without it, many people can't eat. And now without it, many people can't sleep either; well at least not in their own rooms if they live in Couch Center.

As of late, all the main entry doors and most of the hall doors on each floor have had card readers installed. Those hall doors are also always locked. Obviously, this means that if you don't have your card with you, you're not getting to whatever's on the other side of that door. Furthermore, even if you do have your card, unless you live on the hall that you're trying to get into, you're still out of luck. The reader will decree your card invalid and issue an edict in the form of ominous beeps banning your entry.

So, your girlfriend lives on the eighth floor of Couch, and you wanted to surprise her with a quick visit? Guess what, unless you have a co-conspirator open the door from the inside, she doesn't get to see your lovely face.

You ran out to your car at some late hour to get something and only brought your keys? Well, unless someone in the Couch lobby can hear you knocking for dear life, it's time to get comfy in that back seat. That's where you're spending the night.

Joking aside, I understand the premise behind the key locks. They do make the halls more secure and swiping is easier than using a key. Security and convenience are good things, at least in concept. The caveat is you can't do things halfway; that ruins it. Right now, the Couch entry situation is definitely stuck squarely in limbo.

Here's what I mean. You can't get into your hallway or even the building sometimes without your card. But you still need your key to get in your room. So you need both your key and your card to have any hope of making it back to your pillows at night. Granted, it's not that hard to force yourself to carry key and card at all times, but it is still nonsensical in principle. It's all the more so considering the old system worked pretty darn well.

Until February, all the doors had operational key locks. Your room key would also open your hallway door and the entry doors to Couch Tower. There was one key for everything. It was a simple, effective, almost fool-proof setup. The only way you could cause a problem for yourself was to lock your keys in the car.

However, Housing and Food Services is a bureaucracy, and like all bureaucracies, readily fixes things that are not broken. That fix also generally makes things worse, a scenario many feel is descriptive of the key/card fiasco. There's not a clear answer to why this done only at Couch, or really why it was done at all. Perhaps we will never know.

It's unfair to harp on Housing and Food Services without acknowledging that their operations are for the most part logical and problem-free. So maybe this current situation is just a stop-gap, a stepping stone to some grand scheme.

Perhaps in the future, all doors will have card-readers installed. Then keys wouldn't be needed at all. The OneCard really would become what its name claims it is.

However, until that day comes, the residents of Couch are stuck in the current situation of doorway drama. The only way around it is just to make sure you carry both key and card anytime you walk out of your hallway or Couch Center, especially after 10 p.m. or so. This will ensure that you'll be able to get back to your room for the night. Otherwise you just might end up finding out how many real friends you have in Walker Tower.