By Associated Students Inc. Senate approved the third reading of Senate Resolution 2020-07, which proposes lock installations for all classroom doors and building facilities, at Wednesday’s meeting.
The resolution, which calls for the installation of emergency locks on all doors, was introduced last semester by Sen. Sumaiyah Hossain, following the shelter-in-place order that was issued Oct. 7, 2019 in response to a shooter threat made against the campus.
ASI Vice President Leen Almahdi supported the resolution.
“Putting locks on these classrooms is an investment and it’s for the better of all of this campus,” Almahdi said. “It’s something that should be a high priority since we are major stakeholders on this campus.”
Last semester, members of the Long Beach State community made it clear they wanted all rooms to have new locks installed as soon as possible.
It was decided by the administration that all rooms that have 60 or more seats were to have locks installed prior to the start of the semester.
Funds are still being reallocated to install new locks on the rest of the rooms, according to the Senate. As of now, the Senate said there is no date for when all the rooms will be completed.
“One of the clauses on the resolution itself is kind of ASI urging the university to make a training for professors, faculty [and] staff,” Hossain said, “so that they know how to respond to the situation, how to address the class and just how to go about it, if that were to ever happen again.”
It is not mandatory for professors to give safety tips to students about what to do during a shelter-in-place. Hossain maintained that students can make sure the university doesn’t let the topic drop by continuing the discussion.
“If we still have students coming and checking, ‘Hey, do we have all the locks installed?’ that’ll keep the university thinking, ‘Yeah, we have to make sure all the locks are installed on everything,’” Hossain said.
Almahdi said that the Senate is working to make sure the resolution passes, so the administration knows it’s a high priority all classrooms have locks.
Sen. Jireh Deng said students feel safe now that the resolution was approved, considering it was such a big discussion last semester.
The next ASI Senate meeting will be held Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 3:30 p.m. in USU 234.
