Brian Goad
Reporter

Milligan students using the main campus labs at night might be surprised when security kicks them out at midnight because of the new enforcement of some existing security policies.

Last Wednesday faculty and staff received an email informing them that there will be a change in the enforcement of the securing of main campus buildings during the night.

“These are not changes to policy but a change in practice,” said Mark Fox, dean of students, in an interview. “Over time we had gotten loose with traffic in and out of the buildings. These buildings are controlled by the academic dean Mark Matson. He has asked that we simply enforce the policies that are already in place.”

Matson was unavailable for comment.

Security used to lock the main buildings and allow students who were still occupying the building to stay and finish working. However, security will now make sure everyone has left the Science Building by 11 p.m., Hardin by 11:45 p.m. and Derthick by midnight. Security will allow students already in the Paxson Communications Center, which is to be locked at 12:30 p.m., and the occupational therapy lab, located in lower Hardin, to remain in the buildings for as long as they wish.

“We try and be polite when we ask them to leave,” said one of the campus security guards, who wished to remain anonymous because of concern for his job. “And the students are usually pretty good and understanding about it.”

Students, however, are not all pleased with the new enforcement of policies.

“Oh, I don’t like it at all,” said sophomore Michael Traylor, a biology major who frequently uses the labs in the science building at night. “I mean, we’re paying to go to school, and we need time to study.”

“I would usually stay (in the Derthick computer lab) till about 12:30 or 1 (a.m.),” said junior Jon Toler, a computer information systems major. “I don’t own a computer mainly because if I buy one, six months later it’s obsolete. I’m just gonna wait until I graduate to get one. Instead I use the Derthick labs when I can. The latest I stayed was two o’clock to finish up a project for web theory and design. I think that was sophomore year.”

Fox said that the main reason for not allowing students to stay in most of the main buildings is a concern for “security and safety,” especially for the equipment used in those buildings.

“If someone wanted to steal something from the science labs, it would be just as easy to do it at 9 p.m. as it would be at two in the morning,” said Traylor. “I could go in there during the day and steal something. It’s all just sitting out there.”

In fact, that is exactly what happened two and a half years ago when $6,000 worth of equipment was stolen from a lab in the Science Building. According to archives of the Stampede, during the weekend of Feb. 7-9, 2003, Nathan Henry, a senior chemistry major at that time, discovered two different incidents of theft of science equipment.

As a result, security locked the building at 5 p.m. for an unspecified amount of time. The perpetrator was never caught.