Sarah Mason / Features editor

Sarah Mason can be reached at [email protected].

It’s 3 a.m., pouring down rain, and you don’t have your swipe card to get inside your residence hall. You can either: A) obnoxiously call and wake up your roommate. B) hope  that someone doing a walk of shame will pass by soon. Or, C) call College Public Safety to come let you in.

The problem is all of these options have less than ideal consequences. CPS does a great job responding to people when they are locked out of their dorms. But I feel guilty distracting officers from their safety-related responsibilities to request help for getting into my building.

Security is a top priority for students, and it would be more beneficial for CPS, students and other members on campus if CPS were not responsible for helping us into the building.

I have a solution to this problem that will hopefully help all of the forgetful students out there who cannot keep track of their swipe card and find themselves weighing out the options above on a daily basis. This solution is a fingerprint reader.

It makes perfect sense to implement an electronic fingerprint scanning device considering the benefits.

Students have to keep track of a lot. Not having to worry about a swipe card would be one less painful thing to keep track of. It would be more convenient for students because they would not have to fiddle around with their half-broken duct taped swipe cards, and CPS would not have to take time out of its schedules to come let students into their buildings.

Students are already paying enough for tuition so how does it make sense that students have to pay a fee every time they lose their swipe card? A fingerprint reader would also cut down on the amount of plastic our school uses. This new device would benefit the environment as well.

Fingerprint readers would also keep unwanted and unauthorized people from accessing  buildings on campus. One of the features of the fingerprint reader is that it is programmed to allow certain people into buildings. Also, the device can be set to limit access to only residents after a certain hour.

This solution is more convenient and safer for CPS officers, students and other members on campus. Not to mention, it would be so nice to not have to stand outside in the pouring down rain weighing out the best option to get into your building.