Students make their way into the Traditions at Scott dining hall, located on North Campus near Woodruff Avenue. New gates were introduced within the entryway to the building, leading to a difference in lines in the hall. Credit: Lantern File
There’s now one more thing in between students and their Scott tater tots.
At the beginning of the semester, students found new plastic gates at the entrance of Traditions at Scott, which dining officials said help with crowd management. The gates are placed in front of the old entry gates, visibly creating two lines.
They coincide with signs explaining the rules to the customers, who now wait to swipe in one at a time.
“It better defines the lines, where those lines are and just makes it easier for students to get in,” Dave Isaacs, university spokesperson, said.
Issacs said the new gates were pulled from Dining Services’ inventory at no cost and were added to provide better crowd control. Scott is the busiest dining location and is the only dining hall with the change, as management evaluates whether the gates are successful and can be used in other spots across campus.
Anna Sarmir, a second-year in business and a student worker at Scott, said the gates have produced positive and negative consequences so far. She said the larger distance between students has made entering a longer process.
“There are a lot more lines that we have to worry about,” Sarmir said. “Usually the lines go out the door, wrapping around the building.”
Sarmir said the gates make it harder for multiple people to enter on a single swipe. There are added sensors to the original entry gates to tighten security.
“If you don’t swipe or you walk in too early, it will beep at you,” Sarmir said. “So it prevents people from stealing food.”
The alarms are highly sensitive, causing the siren to go off many times during a shift, leading to confusion and creating a loud, harsh noise even when there’s no problem, Sarmir said.
“Most of the time it does happen when there’s no issue,” Sarmir said.
Some returning students have noticed an impact on their dining experience, including Mikayla Hoelter, a second-year in exercise science, who said she has been involved in lines that have spilled into the quad outside.
Isaacs said any increase in wait times is part of the process of new students becoming acclimated to elements of the entry process that have always been in place.
“I think the beginning of any year is always something of a shakedown cruise,” Isaacs said.
