A town hall meeting to discuss reactions to the 24-hour lockdown policy was held by Copley Hall residents Wednesday evening. Approximately 40 people, including students and members of Campus inistry, voiced their opposition against the policy that limits the number of entrances available to each residence hall and the accessibility of halls to non-residents.

“We want to hear some of the concerns and hopefully come up with some solutions,” Hall Director Nate Albee said. “We want to strike a balance between accessibility and security and freedom to access religious spaces.

The Copley residents are drafting a petition to submit to university administration contingent on the outcome of GUSA President Kaydee Bridges’s (SFS ’03) meeting with Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Spiros Dimolitsas and Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez on Friday. It will demand that the old policy be reinstated on the basis of a number of reasons, including handicap access, religious access and personal safety.

“We are concerned that the university has created policies that look good in theory, but fail in practice,” the petition’s current version reads. “By locking these doors to the residents, the university must accept that they will ultimately be open to all persons wishing to enter, even persons from beyond the Georgetown community, as students will continue to prop these doors open.”

“The petition is to register a complaint about the current system,” Peter Treut (COL ’05), who drafted the petition, said. “There is general dissatisfaction with the current policy.”

Several students voiced their concerns about Muslim students not being able to access the Muslim Prayer Room, especially in light of the fact that the first call to prayer is before sunrise, when non-residents cannot enter the residence hall. Those wishing to enter the Protestant chapel in the hours a student guard is not on duty are faced with a similar obstacle.

“It [the lockdown policy] takes the anonymity out of students coming to use a sacred place like St. William’s Chapel,” Protestant Chaplain Ridgeway Addison said. “Some people won’t be comfortable. The institution needs to know nothing about why someone chooses to come in.”

Others brought up that the new policy prompts door-propping, which defeats the purpose of the safety initiative in the first place, and the fact that students are left vulnerable to attack if they are being followed by a pursuer at night and do not have access to all entrances.

The group plans to reconvene this weekend to continue its campaign to defeat the new policy.