Most students will no longer be allowed to have keys to the EMU or to offices inside it under a new policy the building’s administrators enacted Friday.
It is unclear why the EMU changed the policy — some within the ASUO upset by it have suggested that incidents this year contributed to it, but EMU Director Dusty Miller merely said he made the decision for the “safety and security of the EMU,” without going into specifics.
Before the announcement of the decision, the EMU allowed directors and some other members of student groups to have keys to their offices and sometimes to the building itself. However, it appears that the only students allowed to have personal keys to the building under the new policy will be those connected with the Designated Driver and Assault Prevention Shuttles, and ASUO President Amelie Rousseau and Vice President Maneesh Arora.
For access to student offices, other students will need to ask staff in the EMU Information Office to temporarily check out keys for the day, requiring them to scan their student IDs to confirm they are eligible. Miller said there will still be a procedure for allowing students to remain in the building after it closes.
The University community has put the building’s security under newfound scrutiny since EMU employees entered the LGBTQA office early on Feb. 1 to find a swastika spray-painted on the carpet. Personal belongings have recently been taken from an EMU office. Miller also reprimanded Oregon Commentator managing editor Lyzi Diamond for letting another member of the magazine’s staff into the building on Memorial Day, when it was locked. Some speculated all three incidents had catalyzed the board’s decision.
As one of the last actions of her term in office, 2009–10 ASUO President Emma Kallaway began a plan to install security cameras in the building. The EMU announced the new key policy after that process began.
“The fact that we’re restricted access to the building is not acceptable,” Rousseau said of the new decision.
Rousseau and three other ASUO representatives will have a meeting with Miller this morning to discuss the change in policy. Rousseau’s programs administrator, Sinjin Carey, announced the decision in an e-mail sent around 3 p.m. Friday to programs, two hours before it took effect.
Among many student programs, the response has been anger, Carey and Rousseau said, both over the decision itself and the process it underwent: It was announced the day it was to take effect and not approved by or presented to the EMU Board, which makes decisions on the EMU for the ASUO. There are rumors of protests against Miller over the decision.
Rousseau discouraged protests and defended Miller’s intentions, but said she would oppose the move.
“They’re not trying to do something that’s really wrong or shady,” Rousseau said.
Miller said he did not foresee the negativity of the response, saying he regrets not providing “adequate explanation.”
“What is being attempted is to maintain access to the offices without the number of keys being out,” he said.
However, he defended the decision. Miller said he was justified in not consulting the EMU Board.
“The EMU Board is a board that sets strategic vision,” he said. “It’s not … The board’s function is to set general policy. It is not day-to-day operations.”
[email protected]