[PRL] do not prop the door to WVH 308 open. ever.

Daniel Brown dbrown at ccs.neu.edu
Tue Aug 24 18:41:24 EDT 2010


On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 09:15, Felix S Klock II <pnkfelix at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> PRL-
>
> Its a new year, and it seems like its time for me to make my yearly
> plea (see subject line).
>
> Eli Barzilay mentioned to me this morning that he found the door to
> WVH 308 propped open [1] when he was in the lab late last night (circa
> 1am).
>
> This is a security hazard in two important ways ways:
>
>   (1.) someone can come in and steal equipment while the door is
> propped open (e.g. some people leave their laptops in the lab
> overnight [2]).
>
>   (2.) when the deadbolt is propped in this manner and strikes
> against the edge of the door frame, it *DAMAGES* the lock mechanism,
> eventually to the point where the door *NEVER* *LOCKS*, which means
> that we've lost all security for WVH 308 at all times, regardless of
> whether the door is propped or not.
>
> We have already had an instance of the event described in (2.) above.
>
> (Please do not e-mail me back with hypotheses about whether it is the
> cleaning crew propping the door open as opposed to members of PRL,
> unless you have hard evidence; the message needs to get out to the
> junior members of PRL regardless of whether they are the culprits from
> last night or not.)
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Felix
>
> [1] (By "propped open", I mean that the deadbolt was pushed out so
> that the door would not shut and thus the lock would not engage.)
>
> [2] If you do choose to leave a laptop in the lab unattended, it is
> probably best to secure it via a laptop lock, which you can buy at
> most computer hardware stores.  SamTH or I can show you an example of
> such a lock if you do not know what I am referring to.

The door to 308 has begun to fail to close because the panel encasing
the lock protrudes on the bottom and rubs against the doorframe. So
(a) everyone please take care to make sure the door is securely closed
when you leave, and (b) who do we contact to fix this?

(I haven't observed anyone propping it open recently, but I included
Felix's email anyway for the new students.)

 Dan



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