The fine for locking yourself out of your room will not increase from five dollars to 20 this year.
Kevin Bollinger, director of Residence Life, proposed the change in the lock-out policy because of the amount of lock-outs, a total of 130 this year, said sophomore senator Laura Jacob during the meeting.
“The current lock-out policy is that the first offense is a warning and each one after is $5,” Jacob said. “Kevin (Bollinger) wants to change it to $20 for each offense.”
Bollinger said that lock-outs are mostly caused by students forgetting their keys, which poses a security issue and the idea behind the larger fine was that students would think twice about grabbing their keys.
"I wanted StuCo's option on the topic to see how the students would react," Bollinger said. "From their decision it's obvious that it would be a negative reaction."
The StuCo members agreed this was excessive increase and if anything had to be changed, it would be for the fine to increase in increments.
Since the meeting on Sunday, Bollinger changed tactics and is working out a different method of reminding students about their keys.
Bollinger also showed concern about students leaving their doors unlocked.
"We might just do things promotionally," Bollinger said, "even if it means that we have to leave notes on the doors saying 'Your stuff could have been stolen' or locking the doors ourselves."
Locking the door when leaving may be a habit and freshman senator Quint Geis said he believes the lock outs are just accidents.
“I like how it’s set up now, I would start freaking out if I knew that I had to pay that much money,” said Geis.
Junior Jackie Zutterman said she agreed with keeping the old policy, since she has gotten locked out of her room before.
“I went to the shower after Interterm," Zutterman said, "and we had to turn the lock further than usual and I got locked out."
After rejecting the proposal to raise fines, StuCo members also discussed that Residence Life should focus more on enforcement of rules rather than consequences.
During the meeting Jacob said lock outs were not being reported in a uniform manner, so only students who had repeatedly locked themselves out were being fined, not because they were locked out but because the RA on duty was becoming upset with them.
“Some RAs might not report them (lock-outs) until later,” Jacob said. “The reporting of the lock-outs should be more uniform so people have to worry about paying a fine earlier.”
In last Sunday's meeting, StuCo also decided to give funds to another staff proposal by Facility Services Coordinator Jeannine Foster to replace the furniture in the downstairs of the Perry Campus Center by Nurse Kelly Jirovec’s office and the television.
The administration is giving $5000 from a donation fund and some funds will be from StuCo.
Other items decided on during the meeting were an electronic scale in Butler Gym, and the allotment of funds to the Mascot Club’s new inflatable mascot costume and funds for Alternative Spring Break.
Bollinger's fine increase denied
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 22:03
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