Officials bolstered security procedures in Foggy Bottom campus residence hall lobbies this semester, which students say make them feel safer, but only when security personnel is attentive.

A dozen students reported that this semester security officers began requiring off-campus students and non-GW guests to present forms of identification and fill out a sign-in sheet — which logs the names of the guest and resident, their time of arrival and the room the guest is visiting — before they are permitted to walk through the lobby. While multiple students called the policy change “annoying,” and others said it makes them feel safer in their residence halls, students agreed that enforcement of the procedures is inconsistent based on the building and on-call security officer.

Students said before this semester, when bringing a non-GW affiliate or off-campus guest to their rooms, they would tell the security officer the person was their guest, and the officer would typically allow them to enter without asking them to sign a sheet or show an ID.

Students said security officers are now required to document the time a guest enters, but security guards typically don’t ask guests to sign out when they leave the building. Students said off-campus students also must sign in each time they enter an on-campus residence hall and that security officers limit the number of guests to four. 

Baxter Goodly, the vice president of the Division of Safety and Operations, said GW employs a security company to verify that residents tap their GWorld cards appropriately and that guests sign in and are accompanied by a resident to “maintain the safety” of residence halls. Goodly declined to say which security company GW currently uses, and declined to comment on when and why officials implemented new guest sign-in policies in residence halls.

In 2021, GWPD Chief James Tate said residence hall security officers are responsible for controlling building access, verifying GWorld tap access and preventing potentially dangerous people from entering the building. He also said officials contracted Allied Universal Security that year to assign security officers to residence halls to monitor building access. Goodly declined to say if GW still uses this same company.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, student employees oversaw building security via the University’s Student Access Monitor program, which officials officially terminated as students returned to in-person instruction in fall 2020. A November 2018 Hatchet analysis found that Student Access Monitors weren’t present in Amsterdam Hall or South Hall more than 95 percent of the time.

Students’ observations of increased residence hall security this semester comes after Campus Living & Residential Education officials expanded security guard presence in halls last November in response to ongoing activism in the District, and began requiring that all students tap GWorld cards at a second card reader located by security desks upon entering their hall’s lobby. University President Ellen Granberg said in October 2023 that the University would be strengthening campus security by increasing GW Police Department patrols, monitoring outdoor spaces and increasing the amount of assigned security officers in halls “as needed.”

During the pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard last semester, officials diverted security officers in Foggy Bottom from their posts in residence hall lobbies to monitor buildings surrounding U-Yard.

Lindsey Giffin, a junior majoring in English and creative writing, said one of her friends who lives off campus frequently visits her Amsterdam Hall room, and she finds it  “annoying” that she needs to sign in the same friend every time she enters the residence hall, especially when they only leave the building for a few minutes to grab food. 

She said the security officers ask each time for her friend’s GWorld so they can jot down their name, Giffin’s room number and the time her friend arrived at Amsterdam Hall. Giffin said the security officers haven’t asked her guests to sign out when they leave, which she said makes the whole process “pointless” for monitoring guests. 

“I think all the security guards literally know her by name now because of the amount of times I’ve had to write down her information,” Giffin said.

Raquel Korff, a sophomore living in JBKO Hall, said her boyfriend attends Georgetown University and he and his friends often visit her room. She said this semester, security officers have asked her to sign in the guests and have limited the number of guests to four, which she said makes her “frustrated.”

She said when her boyfriend brought five of his friends over and the security officer told her she exceeded the four-guest limit, she “negotiated” with the guard, who ultimately let her friends in because she said it was the end of her shift.

Korff said the process of signing in guests is “extensive” because it can take up to 10 minutes to sign in six guests. 

“I absolutely understand that if you are bringing outside guests in, whether they’re 30 years old or an 18-year-old from another college practically next door, I understand that they do not go here, and they should have to sign in or just show ID,” Korff said. “But this whole guest limit thing, this whole extensive process, it doesn’t make me feel any safer.”

Carly Palmer, a first-year living in Thurston Hall, said she feels “relatively safe” in her residence hall, but is more “cautious” after GW Police Department officers took possession of a secret camera in a Thurston bathroom earlier this month. She said it can be easy for guests to sneak past the security desk if security officers aren’t paying close attention or if there’s a big crowd of Thurston residents entering at once but that she’s glad the policy is in place because it makes her feel safer. 

GWPD and the Metropolitan Police Department launched a joint investigation earlier this month after GWPD found a camera “placed surreptitiously” in a second-floor Thurston Hall bathroom.

“I think everyone making sure they know who’s in the building and stuff, that makes me, when I’m in the building at least, feel a lot safer,” Palmer said.

Evan Campbell, a senior majoring in environmental science, said he lives off campus but visits friends living in campus residence halls and uses study spaces in the buildings, like the 1959 E Street rooftop. He said this semester, he has had to sign in under someone who is a resident and provide his name and a room number he’s visiting, which is “annoying.”

“I don’t think it makes things safer,” Campbell said. “I’m a student, if it was someone that wasn’t a student, then it makes sense.”

Hutton Ward, a sophomore studying international affairs who lives in Lafayette Hall, said when friends who live off campus visit his room, they typically try to tap their GWorld cards at the security desk and “if the security guard doesn’t care” that the reader doesn’t give them access, then they just enter the building behind him. He said more attentive security guards stop his friends and ask them to fill out the sign-in sheet. 

Ward said he values having a security guard at the front desk but because enforcement of security policies varies based on what personnel is on shift, the stricter security hasn’t felt effective. 

“It’s just kind of a policy where it’s gonna be hard to fully enforce because sometimes the guards aren’t necessarily paying all of the attention in the world to everybody who comes in and out,” Ward said.