Zanna Anderson
Managing Editor
As many student athletes at the College of Wooster know, there is a set of doors on the level of the indoor track that say “No Entry” on them. As a member of the cross country and track teams, these doors are very useful, since they connect directly to our team meeting spot.
Unfortunately, there is no way for us to re-enter through these doors without leaving them propped open, so we are oftentimes locked out of the building when we return. Potentially, we could carry our COW cards with us while we run and then re-enter from the main doors or Williams Gym level door.
Unfortunately, the main doors are awkward to enter through, as when we return from a run the last thing we want to do is descend stairs and pass all of the people on these floors while sweaty and perhaps not even wearing a shirt.
The Williams Gym level door is better in this regard: however, carrying a COW card during warm weather is not always possible. This is because on warmer days we can pretty much only wear running shorts which have incredibly small pockets, if any pockets at all, so we cannot carry our cards there. We also cannot carry our cards in our bras simply because of the discomfort of having a plastic card in your bra while you run for miles in the heat.
During colder weather this is less of a problem, as leggings typically have pockets; but most of the academic year is warm enough for us to wear shorts with either a short- or long-sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, long-sleeved shirts also tend to lack pockets.
As such, for most of the year, members of the cross country and track teams have to bang like madmen on the indoor track level doors in order to get into the building, which I imagine is unsettling to passersby.
Some may even resort to propping the Scot Center doors open to avoid making such a ruckus, which can become a security concern since the team locker rooms are just downstairs. These locker room doors are also sometimes propped open, particularly in the beginning of the year, as some student athletes have yet to receive access which is very frustrating for them.
I understand that this is a minimal problem when compared to the wealth of issues facing both our college and the world as a whole today. What I do not understand, though, is what the purpose of the indoor track level doors are! Why can I only exit out of them?
I would understand restricting access to these doors on days when there are indoor track meets but restricting access every other day of the year does not make sense! The only people who I see consistently using these doors are the cross country and track teams. So, if they are meant for us why can we only use them to exit; what is the reasoning?
The only other people I see using the doors occasionally are people who set up events on the indoor track and then they must prop the doors widely open so people can enter their event. Keeping these doors open to such a degree must be a waste of energy, as the air-conditioned air escapes.
If the doors were swipeable during certain times or had a code lock that could be turned off during big events so even people without the code could enter, we could actually make use of these doors while maintaining campus security. Once again this is not a critical issue in the world and at most just peeves the people inconvenienced by it but still, I thank you for reading my rant.
