Amidst the changes as this semester began, Bluford Library has increased security in order to ensure safety for all students and faculty at A&T.

Starting this year, to gain access to the library, between the hours of 12 a.m. – 7:30 a.m., you must be a registered A&T student or staff, with your Aggie One card in order to swipe for entrance.

According to the Associate Interim Dean of Library Services, Doris Mitchell, the change was made during the late night hours for “security purposes when there will be limited staff on duty so we decided to try and protect our students by restricting access of the public.”

“We will still have one security guard at the door, but there will not be as many security guards throughout the library building like during regular hours,” said Mitchell.

Various reasons brought about the need to apply this new security measure.

“One issue that brought about the need was the homeless people coming into the library and often times they have mental health issues that are disruptive and students were complaining to security,” Mitchell added. “We also were noticing that people were visiting pornographic websites during those hours of 12 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.”

The library is still accessible to the public during regular hours, but the new Aggie One card entrance excludes students who attend other universities around the triad area.

Octavious Spruill, head of access services, did a survey to see if other schools gave A&T students access to their libraries after the mentioned hours. He found out they do not.

“We surveyed several universities in the area such as UNCG, Wake Forest, Bennett College, Winston-Salem State, High Point, Guilford College, etc. to examine the scope of their late night entry policies. Each university has different closing hours and rules and regulations for its visitors,” said Spruill. “We do participate in the TALA Borrowing Agreement which allows our current students, faculty and staff to check out books from their library.”

The new security precautions is one way the campus is increasing safety, but Mitchell also offered words of advice to the students of A&T.

“We are taking every precaution we can being that Bluford is so open to the public, but we encourage students to be aware of their surroundings, make sure the door is closed behind them when entering buildings,” said Mitchell.

• Tia Norrington