Harvard ID Access Restrictions Go Unenforced in Many FAS Academic Buildings

Nearly two weeks after the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced that all academic buildings would require Harvard ID swipe this semester, many academic buildings have remained open during the day, prompting concerns from students about campus safety.

Shortly after a deadly shooting at Brown University, the FAS announced that it would temporarily mandate the use of Harvard IDs to enter academic buildings. Three days before the start of the spring semester, the FAS extended the restrictions to the end of the academic year.

But FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm wrote in a statement Tuesday that it is “not feasible to lock the main entrances of our most heavily trafficked buildings during peak hours and require individuals to enter one at a time after swiping their IDs.”

Across more than forty interviews with The Crimson, students said they have often not needed to swipe their Harvard IDs in order to access FAS buildings during normal work hours.

Some buildings, like the Science Center and the Science and Engineering Complex, have had inactive ID scanners during the school day, while others, like Sever Hall and Boylston Hall, are not equipped with scanning infrastructure on their front doors.

Around an hour after the FAS officially announced the extended restrictions, FAS area manager Jonathan Savilonis forwarded the announcement to Boylston Hall administrators, writing that Boylston would not enforce the new swipe access requirements during class hours, according to an email obtained by The Crimson.

“Due to the number of classes in your building, it will remain unlocked during normal class hours,” he wrote, adding that Boylston would also remain unlocked during weekends and throughout evening classes.

Savilonis wrote that HUID access would only be required during evening hours.

“When the building has been normally scheduled to be locked in the evening, it will revert to standing building access with HUIDs,” he wrote.

Other buildings — like Pierce Hall and the Loeb Music Library — have followed through with the January directive and required Harvard ID swipe access during the school day.

Several students repeated their calls for Harvard to consistently enforce the announced swipe access policy.

Julia Bouchut ’29 said the lack of mandated swipe access made her feel “uncomfortable.”

“Somebody can be randomly walking around the Science Square Plaza and then be able to enter into our buildings,” Bouchut said. “It feels like you’re vulnerable to an attack from a stranger at any point.”

Quinn K. Thomson ’29 said that continuing to keep academic buildings open to the public is especially concerning in light of the Brown shooting, which killed two students and injured nine more.

Thomson called the openness of buildings like the Science Center “pretty alarming from a security perspective.”

“With what’s happened at Brown and security across the country obviously being top of mind, I would think we would want to focus on that here,” he said.

Waseem Ahmad ’27 said he was particularly worried about unrestricted access at the SEC, noting that entrance conditions there have not changed following the FAS announcement.

“From my experience, anyone can really walk in,” Ahmad said.

“All of our engineering classes take place there,” he added. “It’s also a bit further from the main campus, in Allston, so I feel like there’s less security.”

Some students said the failure to enforce the announced restrictions raises questions about administrators’ capacity to follow through on security policies and address student safety concerns.

“Accountability-wise, if they said they’re going to do it, they should do it,” Elizabeth Vitale ’28 said. “A lot of students feel like it would create a heightened sense of safety, or at least that they’re responding to what’s been going on.”

Lily S. Walton ’26 said she was unsurprised the restrictions went unenforced.

“I don’t see a whole lot of administrative follow-through here, generally speaking, so this seems pretty par for the course,” she said.

—Staff writer Wyeth Renwick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @wzrenwick.

—Staff writer Samuel S. Rudavsky can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @samrudavsky.