Students living in Margaret Nance received an email on Oct. 4, 2022 from the Residence Life Coordinator Jessica Martin stating that the university would be implementing combination locks on the doors of the community bathroom.
The email stated “Code locks are being added to the bathrooms for extra safety and security. Just as before the girl bathrooms are girls only and boy bathrooms are for boys only.”
The email goes on to state that residents should not share the combination codes with other students.
Several students are happy about the new locks requiring a combination to enter the bathrooms.
“I do think these locks are needed,” Abby McGhee, a freshman psychology major, said. “I and many of my friends specifically picked Margaret Nance because we would be more comfortable in a girl only environment.”
This year the dorm building is co-ed which is something that many students were not aware of until after attending orientation after their room and receiving their roommate assignments.
“A lot of parents and students were unaware of the change of Margaret Nance becoming co-ed, so on move in day we had quite a few parents coming to the desk to complain or calling the front desk phone,” A Margaret Nance desk host that wishes to remain anonymous said. “We had parents ask us how we were going to uphold the separate bathroom policy to which we were unfortunately unable to give them a straight answer because we ourselves did not know.”
The decision to make Margaret Nance a co-ed dorm was made during the summer before freshman orientation. The university made this decision so that they could offer the community bathroom style residence hall and for a lower price for men and women.
“Many of the girls in Margaret Nance have had past experiences with sexual assault or stalkers of some kind, so the locks just give us some extra security and makes us feel safe, especially in a vulnerable position,” McGhee said.
Although some residents feel safer with the new locks on the bathroom doors, there is still concern about students sharing the codes to the bathrooms.
