Staff members in the Feringa Building are wedging open the automatic doors because they don’t like that students can’t simply walk in. But that leads to unsafe situations.
The Feringa Building is equipped with electronic locks that can only be opened with an access card, which isn’t great, according to many of the researchers. ‘We like the atmosphere of an open building and to be able to invite students’, Andrea Giuntoli said in the faculty council last week.
But the access restrictions are intended to make the building safer. In the completely accessible Nijenborgh 4, anyone could enter laboratories, which was undesirable both in terms of physical safety and knowledge security.
But now, for example, access to the study advisers is also restricted. This is causing unsafe situations when people wedge open the doors to let students in. ‘That means they can’t close when there is a fire,’ warned faculty council member Tjalling Canrinus.
Dean Joost Frenken says the situation is less then ideal and promised to investigate the matter. ‘But it may just be a matter of teething problems’, he suggested.