All this could be solved if the gates were re-opened…

As a current sophomore at Columbia, I did get to experience life here with the gates open. It was radically different. There were way more dogs on campus, more smiles from community members, more kids playing, and more students on time to class without having to wait in line to enter their campus. I think closing the gates indefinitely has tremendously damaging effects on Columbia. This semester especially, one of the only ways to enter campus is through the evil Lerner turnstile.

I live in McBain Hall, meaning I enter campus from the south end, below 113th street. Last semester at least, both the John Jay and Carman gates were open. This made it very convenient as an undergrad, who often has to go to places like John Jay, Hamilton, and my CC class in Carman. This semester however, they abruptly closed the John Jay gate. Fine. Whatever. I switched to using the Carman gate. Since spring break, without any rhyme or reason, the Carman gate is closed as well. For anybody entering campus on or below 114th street, their closest option is entering through the Lerner turnstile.

The closure of so many gates has meant the few entrances remaining have horrible lines, all the time. This is made especially worse in Lerner, where only one person can enter and exit at a time. Nobody ever knows if you should zipper merge, just follow the person in front of you, or what. Often I try to be polite and let the person on the other side of the turnstile go, but it ends up wasting more time as they or the security guard usher me to go instead. Only one of the security guards regularly there actually manages the crowd, the rest just sit there. Sometimes this goat will also open the disability door, allowing people to exit quickly. This is a very rare occurrence. The Lerner turnstile has made me late to class many times…

The Lerner turnstile being the closest gate is a horrible reminder, every day, of how out of touch admin is. Do you think a Board of Trustees member has ever thought about how the closing of the gates impacts the majority of undergrads, who live in dorms off campus? Every time I want to enter campus it is a reminder of how out of touch they are. I have clear issues with the gates being closed in general, but at least things were better when gates on 114th were open. Now, in order to enter my campus, I have to enter a building just to exit it. It feels really absurd, especially since I got to experience campus before all of this.

To me, closing more gates feels like admin is just being cheap. If you don’t care about those in the university and how they experience its physical space, then why would you care if they have to waste so much of their time every day in lines? To me, the Lerner turnstile represents how out of touch, in my opinion, the current admin is. The turnstile was clearly never meant to be used like this. If you are just using it to enter and exit Lerner, it’s super convenient! I get that there are security concerns, but after talking to a public safety officer, he too thinks it would be better to open gates and just have security guards in each building. He thinks this won’t happen though, because they would have to pay more security guards.

I remember when, last semester, President Armstrong would email us saying they were trying to open the gates in a matter of weeks, not months. Now, months later, I have lost faith if that will ever happen. I remember moving in early this year, since I am an RA. My first night back, I went on a 11 pm walk by myself to campus. There was barely another soul on the campus. However there were guards everywhere, and all the gates were closed. Back then however, at least a gate was open on 114th street.

In reality, my hate letter is not towards the Lerner turnstile. I think it is currently being overworked and underpaid. My hate letter is towards gate policies in general, and the sad feeling I get thinking of what campus could be like before the gates were closed indefinitely in April last year, when Minouche was testifying before Congress (remember that). Since it has been over a year now, I constantly wonder if this is just how it will be until I graduate. For my own sanity and the sake of my peers, I sincerely hope not.

Header via turnstiles.us