siuDE.com

Dear Editor:

As a graduate of Virginia Tech and in light of recent events at nearby NIU, I don't think I could possibly articulate why and how we are all affected by these tragic events. But after speaking with my colleagues and students, it is clear that it is becoming more and more difficult to create and to be part of a comfortable learning environment.

As a graduate student, I find myself feeling at risk when I'm in a classroom. And as a teacher, I find myself more and more distracted by the inherent lack of security on college campuses.

While I know that no one would ever blame a teacher for the death of a student at the hands of a shooter, I don't think I'm the only one who would blame myself. And yet, there seems to be little any of us can do to stop this sort of thing from happening again.

Most likely, more students will be shot in their classrooms. Most will watch it on the news. Some will watch it happen with their own eyes.

But there is one thing that all of us can do to prevent future attacks in our classrooms here at SIUC: lock the door. Most academic classrooms have a locking mechanism that locks from the inside.

While this makes it much more difficult for someone to enter the classroom, it in no way hinders a student from exiting the classroom.

No, this won't stop every shooter out there, but it's a simple, logical and obvious solution we can all make use of. Public schools across the country have locks on their doors and use them to great effect. Most Americans lock their doors during the day when they are at home. Doing the same in our classrooms will in no way violate or disturb the open line of communication between teacher, student and learning - the basic principles upon which universities are built.

If a student is late for class or needs to use the restroom, they simply knock on the door and identify themselves before they are allowed back in. If a student needs to leave, he or she can do so.

The only problem with this plan is that not every single academic classroom has a lock. It is my understanding that the university is working on this problem.

In the meantime, simply request a room change if your door doesn't have a lock. I had to do this, and the English Department quickly found a classroom with locking doors for me. Just this week we had our first class in the new room, and I explained why we had switched.

One of my students proposed that we come up with a code name in the event that someone came late to class. We had some fun with it and had a great class.

Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum

graduate student studying fine arts

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