Compromise on UKA

Today all 12 House Masters will meet to decide whether universal keycard access to the Houses will be extended until 2:30 a.m. The Masters rejected a plan for 24-hour access in February, and today’s meeting offers the first real chance for progress on the issue in months. We urge the Masters to approve the proposal and to allow undergraduates to enter the Houses after 1 a.m.

The movement towards universal access has been slow since the February meeting, when the most common worry among Masters was that such access would compromise students’ safety on campus. The Masters regard a Harvard student’s House as his castle, and some fear the consequences of letting other, presumably unscrupulous students in.

But in light of greater outside threat created with limited key card access, these fears seem unfounded. Universal access would enable students to evade suspicious individuals as they travel through campus at night. Currently, there is universal access between 8 a.m. and 1 a.m., and there has been no great increase in theft or assault in the Houses during these hours. Allowing students to slip inside a House foyer makes far more sense from a public-safety perspective than leaving them outside to bang on the gates.

Some critics of universal access have also said that its implementation will ruin the Houses’ sense of community. Yet Houses already accommodate outsiders who meet for academic and extracurricular activities; they are also effective at establishing community through intramural sports, House e-mail lists, and House-sponsored social events. Extending access by an hour and a half late at night, when House life is least active, would not threaten House communities.

In fact, extending the hours would remove severe inconveniences for House-sponsored parties, which often bring in friends from other Houses and which (due to a recent Undergraduate Council victory) will soon last until 2 a.m. The current 1 a.m. curfew is a barrier to students who choose to attend the last hour of these parties and would prevent those who leave the parties from coming back in.

First-years, often ignored in the debate over universal access, are allowed access to every first-year dorm. This policy makes plenty of sense, since first-years, like most college students, often study and socialize at later hours with their friends who live elsewhere. This reasoning should be extended to older students, who are divided into small blocking groups and who consequently seek the same convenience.

Student safety and House community are legitimate concerns. But the Masters should address them directly and refrain from using keycard access as a proxy for other issues. The students who seek entrance into a House during restricted hours are not thieves or sexual predators. Most students simply want a convenient way to study, socialize or seek safety. Given these needs, universal access is not too much to ask.

We urge students to contact their Masters on the issue, and we hope that today will bring the approval of later keycard access as a step toward 24-hour safety and convenience for all students.