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The arms to the gates by the guard booths outside of the York Hill parking garage are now kept down, and students must now tap their q-cards to get in and out of the garage.

This was an initiative that Student Government Association Vice President Sophia Marshall began working on last spring.

“I ended up sending out a poll to the people who follow my Instagram account, and I asked them essentially what they wanted to see done in regards to public safety on campus,” Marshall said. “And a lot of students told me that they were kind of concerned with safety as a whole in terms of getting on and off campus.”

Marshall worked with Associate Vice President and Chief of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez, and Associate Vice President for Facilities Operations Keith Woodward on this project.

Rodriguez explained that the q-card access system was added a couple of years ago, but the arms of the gates have been left up so people could park in the garage during sporting events.

“Last year we received a few complaints from our students about several vehicles driving in and out of the parking garage without decals when there was no sporting event going on,” Rodriguez said. “Public Safety also found that unregistered visitors were also parking in the garage.”

Some students believe that this will help keep them safer in the parking garage.

“I think it’s a really good safety mechanism because it prevents people who are random, and not students or faculty to go in and out of the garage,” a junior, Jessica Brown, said.

Other students disagree, saying that it is not necessary to have to tap both in and out of the garage.

“I think it’s kind of unnecessary to have to tap out once you’re already inside,” a sophomore, Michael Mulryan, said. “It should just be a sensor system, you drive up and the gates open.” 

Marshall said she may look into getting rid of the tap out system in the future. Minus that, she has gotten nothing but positive feedback from students.

“We made the decision to lower the gate arms to allow only authorized vehicles into the parking garage,” Rodriguez said. “The gate arms should give our students peace of mind, discourage theft or assault, and significantly reduce unauthorized access to the parking garage.”