Last Friday, I left my room in Wadsworth Hall to enjoy a nice, quiet lunch at McNair Dining Hall. It is often the least busy there and there is a nice view of campus. I make it up the hill and head to the main entrance, but the door is locked and there is a sheet of paper taped to the door that directs me to swipe in another entrance. However, since I live in Wadsworth Hall, I am unable to enter the door to the dining hall or swipe in any nearby door.

Since there is a draft whenever someone opens the door to the dining hall, I understand they’d prefer students to swipe in at the door nearby it. I also think most students would prefer to make it inside the warm residence hall as soon as possible and make their walk outside in the cold, snowy weather shorter. This would not be an issue if students who lived in any of the residence halls on campus could swipe in all three residence halls.

My friends who live in Douglass Houghton or McNair Hall are sometimes frustrated that they can’t get a midnight snack at the Cafe in Wadsworth Hall. Though the cafe is open until 1 a.m. most days, the main entrance to Wadsworth Hall locks at 12 a.m. and you must be a Wadsworth resident to swipe in.

I think the most pertinent issue for those who live in McNair Hall is that even during blizzards with negative 30 degree wind chills, they have to walk from McNair down the slippery sidewalk to their classes on campus. If they could walk down the hill and swipe in the eastern-most entrance of Wadsworth Hall, they could simply exit at the western-most Wadsworth exit, cross the street, and enter at Fisher. This would spare students the unnecessary extra exposure to the UP winter climate.