EagleOne access should be required for all campus buildings

DANIELLE ROSS Staff Writer

To improve the safety of the UMW community, entrances to all on-campus buildings should require EagleOne cards 24 hours a day.

In order to enter any of the dorms on campus, students are required to use their EagleOne IDs to swipe in. This serves as a security measure for students living on campus, as it prevents people who are not enrolled at the university and students who live elsewhere from gaining access to personal living quarters.

However, this is not the case for other buildings on campus.

For example, because UMW is an open campus, anyone from the public is allowed to enter buildings such as the Cedric Rucker University Center, Simpson Library, Hurley Convergence Center and all of the classroom buildings across campus. Several of those buildings, such as the CRUC, close at night, while others, like the HCC, require EagleOne card access after a certain hour, depending on the day. However, that leaves a wide range of time during which any person can come and go as they please, causing students to feel unsafe.

Students have spoken up about concerns regarding their safety many times.

In February 2021, multiple female students reported being followed by a man who was trying to enter Willard Hall, a freshman dorm room, according to an article by The Weekly Ringer.

Two other safety concerns occurred on Friday, April 9, 2021, when students received two campus safety alerts via email, as reported in The Weekly Ringer. The first said that a middle-aged white man called a student a racial slur in the UMW Apartments parking lot, and the second said that two students were approached by a half-naked man near the amphitheater.

In a separate case in September 2021, multiple female students were approached by a white man on the UMW campus, as reported by The Weekly Ringer. Though they had never met before, the man recognized the students and knew them by name after viewing their social media profiles.

All of these instances involved men who were not affiliated with UMW having access to the campus. To address these threats the resulting feelings of unsafety, The UMW campus is located less than five minutes from several residential neighborhoods and downtown Fredericksburg. Residents from nearby areas stroll down campus daily. Knowing that just about anyone could enter buildings where students are learning, eating or living is disconcerting.