Every Monday and Friday I come back to my room in Moffitt to eat lunch, with books from class in one hand and my lunch in the other. I can free up just enough fingers to open the door to go into my dorm and eat. I don’t have, however, enough fingers to dig into my pocket, pull out my Phoenix card, and swipe it to unlock the door to Moffitt.

Why is it that Moffitt and a few other residence halls on campus, are always locked? What’s wrong with opening it during the day? Locking Moffitt makes it a bigger hassle to get into during the day; a hassle that’s even more noticeable when all I want to do is make a quick trip to my room and grab something. Since my hall is never open, walking out during the day and forgetting my Phoenix card (which I’ve already done this year) goes from a quick "Oh shoot" and a trip back to my room lasting a couple of minutes to either camping outside the door to my building waiting for someone to walk out or calling my roommate or suitemates and asking them to let me into my own building.

That’s another problem with Moffitt being locked during the day. If someone wants to come by during the day, either to visit, get something or work on homework, they have to plan it out in advance so we can coordinate a time to meet just so I can open a door for them.

Elon’s a friendly place, I’m sure most of the people here would have no problem with a friend just dropping by for a few minutes or even a few hours. In fact, someone just coming by to hang out is much more pleasant than someone making arrangements in order to come by, since you lose the "spontaneous" feel of the visit.

As it is, it’s not worth it to come by Moffitt and the other dorm buildings that are always locked to see your friends unless you need something from them. It’s easier to just say "hi" and see what’s up by phone or IM. Furthermore, there’s no reason why I should have to unlock the door to walk into my dorm building during the day when everything else on campus is wide open.

What is there to gain by locking our dorm all the time? Whenever we see someone trying to get in without a Phoenix card, we always open the door for him or her anyway. It’s part of the friendly atmosphere at Elon. Why make us have to work harder to have guests visit us?

Living in a particular location on campus isn’t a good reason to make having visitors a painful experience, especially when the vast majority of residence halls on campus are open throughout the daytime hours.