The Bowdoin OneCard is sleek, small, convenient, and also easy to lose or misplace.
Even with a missing card, there are ways to access certain OneCard amenities. If you leave your card in your room, you simply sign into the dining halls at the cost of two Polar Points. If you're at the C-store, you give the cashier your I.D. number, and if you need to print something at the library, you can simply ask to borrow another student's card. And yet, what do you do when you are locked out of your dorm?
When asked if they thought there was a charge to be let into the dorms by Security, students responded with confusion.
"They're supposed to charge us when we ask them to let us into the dorms, but I don't think they do," said Shelley Levin '10. Levin could not remember where she had received this information, but was certain that under particular circumstances students had been fined for asking Security to let them into their rooms.
Other students, however, had never heard of Security charging this fine.
"I did not think Security charged me $5 to let me into my room," said Jeanette Goldwaser '10. "I was never told this."
The truth is that Security will not charge students who need to be let into their dorms. In fact, no current Bowdoin literature corroborates this claim. Up until the 2006-2007 school year, the college handbook stated that starting on the third or fourth week of school, Security would impose a $5 charge to provide students access to their dorms. According to Assistant Director of Security Michael Brown, however, Security did not charge students in cases of wallet theft or reader malfunction. In fact, they only charged after a particular student had called on four or more different occasions.
Brown, who has worked for Bowdoin since 1997, cannot remember a student being charged in at least the last five years.
Katie Gundersen '10, a proctor in West Hall, was surprised to hear that students were not fined.
"I've told my proctees to try to find a proctor to let them into their rooms so that they don't get charged by Security," she said.
"I feel like the idea of the $5 charge is a commonly held belief by the student body. I remember last year calling my roommates frantically trying to find one of them, so I could avoid calling Security."
Brown suggests that the declining misuse of Security's services is directly correlated with Bowdoin's shift from identification cards and the two-key system to the OneCard. Previously, students needed to keep track of two keys?one to gain access into their dorms and the other their rooms?and the charge for replacement was approximately $50.
Currently, Residential Life charges $15 to replace the OneCard, much lower than $50 charge to replace the formerly used keys. However, Brown doesn't think that this alone has reduced the overuse of Security services.
"The cost of replacing the card, compared to the security issues, as well as the inconvenience of not being able to eat breakfast or print has mostly likely caused the decline in the abuse we saw in the past," said Brown.
Since January 2006, Security has received a total of 6,160 calls requesting access to dorms. This averages to approximately 9.4 calls per day. Calls asking to be let into dorms make up 19 percent of the total calls received by Security.