Freshman Dorms Apply New Security Measures

USC Housing has undergone increased security measures requiring students to swipe their IDs and register their fingerprints in order to access the freshmen housing facilities.

Although the measures come just weeks after the USC Halloween shooting -- in which local Inglewood resident Brandon Spencer allegedly shot four individuals at an on-campus party -- officials and students administering the new security measures say there is no connection to the incident.

"A lot of people think it's due to the shooting," said Elizabeth Adabale, a resident advisor for Parkside Arts & Humanities. "But this has actually been planned for months now, since last semester. We already had the technology; it's just more of how to implement it."

While many of the freshmen dorms already required students to swipe their IDs to enter the lobbies, students up until now had been able to leave their IDs at home and depend on someone else to open the door for them. But Adabale says that with the new fingerprinting measures, people will be unable to proceed through the lobby into dorm halls without being registered in the system.

"People might want to complain before they go through it, but once they realize how simple it is -- it literally takes an extra 10 seconds -- it's like whatever," Adabale said.

The official day for registering one's fingerprints in the system was Nov. 9; however, students returning to campus for the first time since last week can still register at the lobby of the customer service centers.

The increased security measures will be implemented at every freshman dorm.