Beit Hall: Access All Areas
A lapse in security at Beit Hall has, for at least a month, allowed any College student access to Imperial's largest hall of residence. Anyone with an Imperial College swipe card was able to enter the hall, via doors adjacent to the Beit security lodge, allowing potential access to students' bedrooms.
The doors, which are supposed to limit access to a select group, and are usually even out of bounds to Beit residents have been `open access' for over four weeks, compromising the safety of residents.
Last week Felix observed non-Beit residents entering both hall common rooms as the Union bar closed. Bar regulars have been aware for some time that their swipe cards could open the doors. Allegedly, non-residents were even arranging afterhours pool tournaments in one of the common rooms.
Residents have questioned how this security blunder occurred and why it went unnoticed by Security for so long. A first year Beit resident told Felix: "I'm not happy about the halls being open to anyone to just walk in, especially considering the ubiquitous posters around halls about keeping vigilant against intruders."
When Felix first contacted Ceri Davies, Head of Security, he was unaware that there was a problem. When we explained the situation, he thought the problem was due to the doors' swipe-locks being set to an incorrect access code. He told us, "the Hall Warden is responsible for setting access requirements; we enforce the policy... if someone had reported it, we would have followed it up. I'm confident that something would have been done and I will certainly launch an investigation into this matter."
However, when we contacted Ariadne Hager, Beit Hall's Assistant Warden, she said the wardening team had "noticed that the doors were not functioning properly before Easter. The Warden has been in touch with security and this has come up in several of our warden meetings nothing to date has been done about it".
Felix was contacted by Barry Woodgate, Chief Security Officer, who told us that the door activation logs had been checked over the weekend and no unauthorised access had been allowed.
However, our investigations team stopped thirty random non-Beit students to test their swipe cards, and found that all of them were able to enter the hall.
The Security department continued to maintain that this was not possible and suggested that our claims were groundless. An officer was dispatched to observe our reporters entering the hall.
Mr. Woodgate subsequently apologised to Felix and explained that there must be a disparity between the entry logs and the situation on the ground. He then quickly identified the fault and the problem has now been completely resolved.
This incident comes as an embarrassment to College, especially after last term Felix revealed a catalogue of security breaches across Imperial's halls. Beit residents have called the current situation "farcical" and demanded that someone "be held accountable for the shocking disregard of hall safety".
Chris Miles, News Editor
Felix's View
This security lapse left Beit residents in an unacceptably vulnerable position. However, it appears to be the result of a genuine technical error and lack of clear communication between the Beit hall wardening team and security officers, and as such no one person should be held responsible.
