D. Easy Access to Community Facilities

Many dormitories have spaces which are intended for use by the entire
MIT community - Baker Dining and MacGregor Convenience, for example.
The current arrangements in many dormitories often either prevent easy
and convenient access to these spaces by the public, compromises the
security of private areas, or both.

Currently, for example, there is nothing to stop a student visiting
Baker Dining from wandering the entirety of the dormitory.  Residents
have also often become dangerously accustomed to opening doors for
anyone who requests entry, on the assumption that they are on their
way to a community area visiting a friend.  Visitors also often find
explaining themselves to desk workers to be a hassle, which
discourages them from visiting friends at other dormitories, or eating
in another in-dorm dining hall.  On the other hand, due to the high
volume of legitimate traffic in many entryways, desk workers are not
always diligent about questioning every person who wanders by.

MIT should conduct a comprehensive review of physical security in its
residence halls, with aim of accomplishing all of the following goals:

 - Allow members of the MIT community easy and convenient access to
   those areas of the building which residents designate as "public"
 - Effectively restrict access into areas designated by residents as
   "private" to current residents and their guests
 - Allow residents creative flexibility in designing and enforcing
   access restrictions to the facilities of their dormitory

MIT must implement the changes requested as a result of this review
process.  This will require a minor but important commitment of
Institute funds toward updating the physical security infrastructure of
its residence system.

In a dormitory with a dining hall, event space, or similar common
areas, residents may opt to give 24-hour (or limited-hour) open access
to all members of the MIT community in order to promote
inter-residence interaction.  Weight room, music practice rooms, and
similar facilities might be allocated by a reservation mechanism
controlled by the front desk, with priority given to residence.
Additional card readers or key locks might be requested on entries to
private hallways from public areas.  Additional security "checkpoints"
would allow different access policies to be enforced for different
areas in a given building.

Students in many floors and entries enjoy the social and physical
benefits they get from being able to leave their doors open all of the
time.  In other places, students would prefer ease of public access to
common hallways.

Taking into account these differing preferences is important, and
under no circumstances should the security policies of a building be
changed against the wishes of the majority of the residents.