Georgetown students were able to gain access to all four freshman residence halls 76 percent of the time while flashing a GOCard with the wrong sticker or no sticker at all, a recent GUSA experiment has shown. The students attempted to enter freshman residence halls where they did not live a total of 50 times and were denied entry 12 times, in each case for displaying a sticker from a different hall. According to a GUSA press release about the experiment, students who had no sticker at all were never stopped.

Three freshmen organized the experiment by asking students about to enter a freshman residence hall, if they lived there and tracking the entry success rate of those who did not, one of the organizers, Adam Giblin (SFS ’06) said. Each person who was denied entry was stopped before 8 p.m. later at night, access was freely granted or no guard was present at all, the press release said. Village C East had the highest rate of stopping students without proper stickers, denying entry to four students out of 12. New South stopped three students out of 12; Harbin denied three out of 13 and Village C West, two out of 13.

“People either covered up their sticker or flashed it really quickly,” Giblin said. “. The guards kind of turned a blind eye.” He estimated that people who covered up their sticker were stopped approximately 5 percent of the time, but were usually let through by the guards afterwards anyway.

“Machines and locks don’t make us safe – people make us safe – and that means having responsible guards all the time,” GUSA Vice President Mason Ayer (SFS ’03) said.

“The 24-hour lockdown policy doesn’t work,” Co-Chair of GUSA’s Health, Safety and Justice Advocacy Committee Beth Cooney (NHS ’03) said. “It is an inconvenience to students that stifles student interaction, significantly diminishes quality of life and prevents students from accessing basic services like computer labs, laundry facilities and places of worship.”

GUSA sent a letter to University President John J. DeGioia last week explaining student concerns with the new lockdown policy. “We believe that the policies in place suffer from a number of important loopholes that in fact decrease safety,” the letter said.