Let my people go

The 1997-98 FCC was the last council to work hard on this issue, and the evidence the reps gathered was impressive. "Freshmen were tired of walking around to Phelps Gate and High Street gate to get to Chapel Street," Vairavan Subramanian, SY '01, then-FCC chair, said. In a door-to-door FCC survey that year, a vast majority of students living in Vanderbilt said they would prefer to have the gates open. In addition, Yale Police told the FCC that making the gate accessible to students with ID cards would not pose a security risk. Yet Trachtenberg rebuffed the FCC.

Many candidates for the 1998-99 FCC made the opening of the Vanderbilt gates a part of their candidacy statements. But when the council convened, advisors Subramanian and Abu Demissie, DC '01, suggested focusing efforts elsewhere. "I told them that Dean Trachtenberg is vehemently opposed, and what she says goes," Demissie said.

Trachtenberg is still vehement. "I absolutely without any reservation oppose the Vanderbilt gates being fitted for card access," she said. "I think the security of our residents on Old Campus would be compromised." While she did not think that attaching a card reader to Elm Street Gate would create a security hazard, she explained, "From what I understood, the Elm Street Gate has been reviewed for card access. It's an impossible job to do."

This is essentially what Trachtenberg has told this year's FCC reps. "The only response was, don't even bother, it's not happening," first-semester FCC chair Hansel Tookes, CC '03, said. Nonetheless, spring-semester chair Robbie Wilkins, BK '03, brought the issue up with Trachtenberg on Wed., Feb. 17. He was told that when Yale was looking into electronic access a decade ago, the Elm Street Gates were studied, but it was determined that, for physical reasons, they couldn't be reconstructed with a card reader.

Yet Trachtenberg now says she doesn't recall the details of the study. "I don't remember what the feasibility study said about Elm Street Gate," she said. Nina Glickson, assistant to President Richard Levin, GRD '74, served on the committee that examined the issue of electronic access, and she had never heard of such a study. Neither had Jerry Hill, Director of Physical Plant Facilities. "I think the Elm Street Gates were never even considered," he said.

Even if a feasibilty study ruled out making the Elm Street Gates ID card-accessible years ago, it may be that, with new technology, it is now possible. Director of University Security Jack Gundrum, who is in charge of central-campus access control, said it would cost between $15,000 and $20,000 to reconstruct any Old Campus gate—including Elm Street Gate—and attach a card reader to it. To make two gates—one on Elm Street and one on Chapel Street—ID card-accessible would cost under $40,000, could be done in one summer, and would have minimal effect on the gates' appearance.

Furthermore, opening the Vanderbilt gates would not endanger the students living there. According to Yale Police Chief James Perrotti, there were four crimes against persons on Chapel Street between College and High Streets in 1998 and 1999 reported to the Yale Police, and only one of these, a verbal threat, may have involved someone Yale-affiliated. While some other crimes may have been reported to the New Haven Police, Perrotti said, "We usually handle the calls in that area."

In response to a question about crimes on Chapel Street, Trachtenberg said, "I think your question is not a sensible one. Have unwanted people come into the dorms in Vanderbilt? Yes. Because it's such an isolated part of Old Campus, I feel it's a very high security risk."

However, gates that lead to isolated parts of residential colleges are card-reader accessible for students' convenience. Furthermore, the gates near Bingham open up to an unisolated part of Old Campus, and opening them would increase access to Chapel Street. When asked about that possibility, Trachtenberg said, "I don't know, that's something I haven't given much thought to."

Trachtenberg hasn't given much thought recently to the entire idea of increasing access to Old Campus. She admitted that students approach her at least twice a year about the issue, but maintained that "while the issue is not a dead issue, [it] has not been on people's minds." Gundrum seemed surprised to hear that students wanted increased access to Old Campus. Perrotti said, "I have not been involved in any of these discussions [regarding opening Old Campus gates]."

Yet while the issue hasn't been discussed much recently by Yale administrators, it has much support. Many freshmen have told their reps that they favor increased access. Perrotti said, "I wouldn't have any strong objection to that [attaching card readers to the gates]...I don't think Chapel Street can be described as a high-risk area." Branford Master Steven Smith, some of whose freshmen are living in Vanderbilt this year, said that he had not thought much about the issue, but said, "On the surface, it sounds like a good idea."

It is a good idea, and this year's FCC should keep pursuing it. Giving up would perpetuate the unnecessary inconvenience that Yale students are suffering, and it would send to the Administration the message that inadequate explanations for seemingly irrational policies will suffice.

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