Spring Break
Letter: Student angered in light of student apathy about hand scanning at URI dining halls
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
02/15/08 - To the Cigar, I am writing this letter to follow up on the letters I wrote last semester regarding the hand geometry scanners that are being used in the dining halls at this university. It appears that University of Rhode Island dining services and the administration have won a victory over the apathetic student body. The aforementioned parties wanted more control and they got it, with virtually no opposing voices apart my own and my friend Tim Martin.
We both wrote letters to this newspaper and even went on the air on 90.3 FM to discuss this pertinent issue, all of which seemed to fall, disturbingly, on deaf ears.
The idea of hand scanning is now fully integrated into the normal ebb and flow of life at URI, which I think is an extremely scary concept.
"Are you kidding? You have to scan your hand as well as your student ID card in order to eat lunch?" a curious onlooker, unacquainted with our way of life, may ask. The answer to that question is yes, unfortunately.
At what point will students decide to no longer sit complacently while their rights are stripped from them? The next time that university officials come to implement new security measures at the dining halls, don't be surprised when they bring their full blown fingerprinting security.
As I stated in a previous letter, the transition from "hand geometry scanning" to fingerprinting is much easier than the transition from swiping an ID card to fingerprinting.
URI dining services and university administration will give you all kinds of invalid excuses, but in the end, that is exactly what they are: invalid excuses. There is no excuse for having to scan your hand and ID card in order to eat food.
University officials will trumpet the headlines of newspapers with Virginia Tech on the front page, asking us if this is what we want by not accepting their "security measures." It's all about control, and the next time Virginia Tech happens, they will wave the new, more advanced "security measures" in your faces (with fingerprinting being a possible next step after hand scanning).
We both wrote letters to this newspaper and even went on the air on 90.3 FM to discuss this pertinent issue, all of which seemed to fall, disturbingly, on deaf ears.
The idea of hand scanning is now fully integrated into the normal ebb and flow of life at URI, which I think is an extremely scary concept.
"Are you kidding? You have to scan your hand as well as your student ID card in order to eat lunch?" a curious onlooker, unacquainted with our way of life, may ask. The answer to that question is yes, unfortunately.
At what point will students decide to no longer sit complacently while their rights are stripped from them? The next time that university officials come to implement new security measures at the dining halls, don't be surprised when they bring their full blown fingerprinting security.
As I stated in a previous letter, the transition from "hand geometry scanning" to fingerprinting is much easier than the transition from swiping an ID card to fingerprinting.
URI dining services and university administration will give you all kinds of invalid excuses, but in the end, that is exactly what they are: invalid excuses. There is no excuse for having to scan your hand and ID card in order to eat food.
University officials will trumpet the headlines of newspapers with Virginia Tech on the front page, asking us if this is what we want by not accepting their "security measures." It's all about control, and the next time Virginia Tech happens, they will wave the new, more advanced "security measures" in your faces (with fingerprinting being a possible next step after hand scanning).
