UConn housing check-in comes under scrutiny
20 January, 2017
category: Security
A housing check-in process at the University of Connecticut has come under criticism by some students for introducing a measure of inconvenience, albeit for the sake of security.
This past week, UConn students who had yet to check in online using their My Housing accounts were subject to losing card access to their respective residence halls. Students were notified of the check-in during the move-in process and over the winter break via email, but an editorial published by the Daily Campus suggests that the security measure and the possible consequences of not completing it added unnecessary stress to what is considered a “busy period of adjustment” for students.
During the winter break, students received a series of emails dating back to the first week of January from the university’s Department of Residential Life notifying them of the new check-in process. In addition to the emails, paper posters were also displayed in the dorms as a secondary reminder for students to check-in.
Per the Daily Campus report, the concern from a student perspective is that the break represents a “pause from university life which means not checking student email addresses or considering the move in process.” The papers posted in the residence halls were also deemed to be easily overlooked among the many other posters that typically populate residence hall notice boards.
The report does laud the check-in process for its focus on the security of campus buildings requiring card access, but questions the need for students to notify the university that they wish to use a room that they are already being charged for. The criticism goes on to say that the university should be aware of where students are living from previous records and processes from the move-in process.
The university, meanwhile, insists that the check-in is intended to identify which continuing students are present on campus. Criticism also deems the process as being an additional, redundant step that could carry the risk of causing students living on campus “extreme worry and stress during an already stressful week.”
