Ryan Johnson, sophomore biological systems engineering major, enters East AJ through the front door. Students can enter East AJ primarily from the front door. The side doors are locked to residents.
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An attempt to strengthen community for Virginia Tech's residential college seems to have partially backfired, angering some students and spurring the creation of an online petition.
Beginning this semester, university administrators have limited door access to residents in West Ambler Johnston. Now, residents of West AJ may only enter the dorm through the main entrances of the building, while all winged entrances remain locked.
The purpose of this policy is to increase student interaction and develop a stronger sense of community. West AJ is a residential college, meaning most students apply to live in it and it has a unique governing structure.
“The residential college model deals a lot with building community and having a family aspect rather than a dorm aspect,” said West AJ co-president Erica Bennett. “If people are funneled through the main doors, it will increase random interactions.”
Several years ago, associate vice-president of Student Affairs, Frank Shushok, formed a planning committee for the residential colleges of East and West AJ. Faculty, staff, and students from the university made up the committee, which met twice a month for two years.
During this planning stage, the decision was made to have
fewer entrances to the building. The committee agreed to institute the policy based on other residential college models in the country, such as those at Harvard and Princeton.
Many students are upset with the sudden change. Some do not understand why the policy was implemented second semester, when all entrances were accessible last semester.
“I just wonder why they decided to do this now,” said freshman Jenny Boyd. “If (administrators) were trying to create a stronger community, it would have made much more sense to do it at the beginning of the year when people were trying to make new friends and meet more people.”
The policy was supposed to take effect in August, at the beginning of the academic year, but a simple mistake kept that from happening.
“Our college was supposed to have the entrances on the wings of the building locked from the beginning of the school year,” explained Benjamin Sax, Faculty Principal of West AJ. “However, a small bureaucratic oversight kept them open last semester.”
Students have responded by circulating a petition, created by
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 19 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
I'm a college student and I need to find something to be angry about since there are no good wars going on right now.
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Also, I absolutely hate having to go through the main lobby to get to my room, because I always end up seeing the demon that tells me to burn things.
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I'm a cranky old townie who is bored about complaining about taxes. wah wah wah
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Someone call the wambulance
After spending time and money and creating a student housing shortage this is the result of West AJ
Oh yeah safety is important /s
Shushok commented on this issue, saying that he thought the ultimate decision will come from the community, and not just the administration.
“Unless your definition of administration consists of the governing entities of the residential college,” Shushok said. “Strong elements of self-governance are fundamental to residential colleges and (West AJ) has several governing bodies which will have to weigh in and decide (what to do.)”
The students upset by the policy have prompted communication between residents and administrators. A town hall meeting was held within the residence college after the policy was implemented to allow students to have their opinions heard in a face-to-face forum.
Oh goodie let's see..... will the administrators listen to those little college students
Will it go to DSA or CSA then University governance?
LMAO that's what you get
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When I was involved in the college council of the Honors Residential College (in East AJ), complaints such as these would be directed to the council, and we would then discuss these concerns with the appropriate faculty, staff, or administrators. I don't know about the specific operations Residential College at West AJ, but knowing their governance structure, I would expect their council would employ a similar approach for addressing feedback.
In response to the issue at hand, I think it is important to consider that good ideas are not always immediately obvious as such and it can take some time before the (full) benefits are realized. Good policies aren't always convenient, either. If this policy does not seem justified, respond productively: start a conversation with the house/college council, the college's faculty fellows, or Housing and Residence Life staff. Before dismissing a change, try to figure out the motivation behind it.
If you are inclined to criticize, just remember that a great number of faculty members, staff members, and administrators are invested in the success of the community. As such, I doubt that a change such as this would have been enacted capriciously.
I do wonder how the policy was introduced to the Residential College at West AJ, as from this article I get the impression that it was implemented suddenly and without much dialogue. Maybe someone can speak to how the circumstances affected the policy's inception.
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Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
The policy was introduced to the entire community in the welcome back e-mail at the beginning of the semester. I knew it was going to be a big deal when I saw it.
As for the safety issue, VTPD is doing a threat assessment on the claims. I have never felt unsafe on campus at night, personally.
Another note, there is not a single "dorm" at Virginia Tech. They are all "residence halls".
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Really? With all the nice stuff you get in this dorm, you complain about having to walk an extra 20 yards to get to the entrance? Grow up, you entitled brats.
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In response to the petition, Dr. Sax called the residential college narcissists and racists.
Previous to reading his comments, I had no idea any racism was going on in the dorm because I was never notified. If he felt it was a problem, then he should've brought it up at a more appropriate time.
Moreover, I'm a female. The alley that we have to walk through past the creepy white vans, dumpsters, and obscenely large bushes is ill-lit and scary. I used to walk through the wing to get to my side (the south side), but now I have to walk past half the building fearing that when I am attacked I won't be able to identify my attacker because the only lights in the alley are on either side of the doors like little lanterns.
Also, we were never notified by Housing. Dr. Sax is a bit wordy and he sends out weekly emails at least a page in length; he'll talk about half hour long youtube videos, middle eastern academic talks, dorm events, and one time he mentioned the doors. For weeks, people banged on the wing doors to get in because their cards "weren't working." For such a drastic change, we should've been notified officially through Housing not in an email that most people don't take the time to read.
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“I certainly support your right to complain, vent, inter alia. I'm sure you'll have many constructive conversations about this policy with your housing staff and the good people of res life. I'm glad we'll talk about our community, since there have been several reported and many unreported incidents of racism in our building. Egregious, no? None of the signees of this petition reported them to us. None seem to care or notice. None have expressed this very engaged level of righteous indignation publicly and with such verve. There are currently no petitions to challenge this behavior. No one is demanding change. No one is showing any solidarity with the victims. No one is talking about it.
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This has gone on since September, in, I'd say, a very comfortable silence. Everyone believes him/herself a bystander. I noticed that the “principles of community” was cited in this petition (among many others cited out of context). Please reread this document. Had it been read carefully, I think our priorities here would have been very different. To use this document to support your case against the locked doors (in a public petition, no less) is simply an exercise in narcissism. Please consider what the Principles of Community document is advocating. 200+ people feel a policy is not working after a couple of weeks (convenience? change?) and this merits a petition. It's your right and I support it. Although, imagine how this may sound to others on campus or in other communities? Racism (written and spoken) endures in myriad ways in our community, and no one sees anything wrong with how we're treating members of this community (after one whole semester). Does anyone even notice? Indeed no one is suggesting change or sees any problems. It simply is not discussed. However, please feel free to continue to inundate Joe and Sam with your concerns about the doors. For those of you interested in changing our current culture of complicity and silence, please direct your concerns to me, or your Associate Principals, we would be delighted to help.” -Dr. Sax
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One more thing on his racist point: this is another excerpt from the same email Dr. Sax called us narcissists and racists in. It includes a link to another Collegiate Times article.
"Yet, as you know, this campus has an uncanny ability to make certain people feel like outsiders. From the Collegiate Times in 1992: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/archives/blackhistory/timeline/dodging.htm. Anything changed?"
So tell me, students: has anything changed since 1992?
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Jealous? Cry more.
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Totally agree with you - I hate walking in the dark near the vans, trees, etc to go through the main entrance and then have to pause (in a not so well lit area) to swipe my key card. The wing entrances are much more well lit and in my opinion, safer.
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Huh? What the.....
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Thanks again for the article.Really thank you! Cool.
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