Intruders bypass security at D.C.-area universities

But recent incidents, including a University of Maryland student awakening in her dorm room to being fondled by an intruder, show that even the multiple layers of security being used today can’t guarantee restricted access at residence halls. And high-tech measures can be rendered useless as simply as an 18-year-old holding a door open for the person behind them.

Two incidents in the fall at George Washington University demonstrated how easily security technology can be bypassed.

In one, a man trailed a student into City Hall and tried to sexually assault her when they reached the second floor. The student fought the man off, screaming, and he fled the scene. Barely a month later, a man got into a West End residence hall, threatened a female student and got in a physical altercation with two male students.

In both cases, according to university police Chief Kevin Hay, the intruders got into the buildings by “piggy-backing” or following a resident. The attacks prompted campus police to evaluate security in all residence halls.

Over the past academic year, universities across the Washington area have been increasing dormitory security in an effort to keep residents safe and intruders out. Double-barrier systems, where electronically-encoded identification cards must be swiped at two locations to gain access, are becoming common. Among the schools that say they employ this in some of their halls: Maryland, Georgetown, American and Catholic universities.

In the fall, Catholic University required that students living in the North neighborhood re-scan their student ID inside each residence hall. “The university added card readers inside a number of the residence halls to make it easier to verify building residents and non-residents,” the school’s communications director, Katie Lee, told The Washington Examiner.

While school administrators and public safety laud the double barrier system, many students see it as an annoyance. Residents at American University violently responded to the installation of a card swipe at the elevators in McDowell Hall. Students ripped out the elevator card readers on three separate occasions during the first two weeks of classes last semester.

At George Washington, students used to only have to swipe once at a door. Following the fall attacks, G.W. students now must swipe their card to access doors, elevators and stairwells, and campus police have an increased presence in certain areas.

The problem of piggy-backing is common on college campuses, but it’s not always because of student negligence.

“The general nature that folks have when they walk in is the person walking behind them, they’re going to hold the door for,” said University of Maryland police Capt. Marc Limansky.

G.W. junior Richelle Gamlam said that even at sorority housing, students will hold the door for a guy as long as he looks like a student.

“It could be someone’s boyfriend,” Gamlam said. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh don’t wait in the rain, come inside.'”

Still, a person doesn’t always have to look like a student to get let into a residence hall.

A man and woman — both of whom attended the University of Maryland more than 15 years ago — had no problem getting into a College Park dormitory recently and getting up to the residence floors. The pair simply followed a student with an access card into Easton Hall, but then the woman told a community assistant that she wanted to go up to show her friend her old dorm room. The attendant said that she couldn’t swipe her card to let them use the elevator — then suggested they ask a student going into the elevator to activate it for them.

The first student the pair asked was glad to oblige.