On Friday, Feb. 17, the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), a subcommittee of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), met with Director of Public Safety (PSafe) Scott Rohde, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Operations of the Physical Plant Luigi Marcone, and a representative from the Middletown Police Department to discuss the current limitations of WesCard access with the hopes of expanding student access to practice rooms, study areas, and meeting spaces.

Currently, WesCards can be used for meal swipes and school-related purchases and can give students access to their dorms and academic buildings around campus. However, expanding card access also holds relevance in situations where a student gets locked out of their residence and are then charged money. Rohde explained that charges are applied in situations such as lockouts because a PSafe officer has to leave their post or patrol and drive to the locked-out student and then return to their post. Rohde also explained that an officer’s brief hiatus can ultimately create a 20-minute delay in work. With increased card access, these issues might lessen, leading to fewer interruptions in the schedules of PSafe officers. Access would first be expanded to the newer buildings and later to program houses.

The issue of WesCard access has been previously raised to the WSA. PSAC Facilitator and WSA Senator Asija Qyteza ’24 stated that most students in the WSA General Assembly were in favor of expanding card access. 

However, Rohde clarified that should any expansions to card access be made, these would still not allow students to enter residential buildings beyond their own.

“Expanding the card access streamlines access for people needing to be in those areas,” Rohde said. “For example, access to the library, music spaces, rehearsal halls, and common places would be more accessible to students.” 

This card access would benefit student performers wanting to practice in the CFA and student researchers who need to enter labs for late-night work.

“Security is inherently inconvenient, but I’m sure that there’s a balance,” Marcone said. “If we’re going to expand access to program houses and the CFA, we would need institutional commitment for the next steps. We would need the students themselves to want these changes.”

Ulysses Conrad can be reached at uconrad@wesleyan.edu.