SCAD implements new lanyard policy
Featured image courtesy of Danielle McGotty
Written by Zach Andrews
As national school shootings increase rapidly every year, SCAD is searching for progressive ways to keep students, faculty and staff safe. On Sept. 15 an email was sent requiring SCAD affiliates to wear their IDs in a SCAD official lanyard. Third-year game design major Jack Burrows responded by throwing his away.
Yet Burrows is not the only one violating the new security upgrade. As of Oct. 2, anyone not wearing their lanyard inside a SCAD facility is ignoring the newest SCAD mandate and can be declined access to residence halls, academic buildings, etc.
“We’re not going to be challenging folks right away because it’s a cultural shift,” said Head of SCAD Security, John Buckovich. “But it will be enforced.”
One argument many students make against the lanyards comes from a false sense of insecurity. “It puts a target on your back,” said T, a first-year living on campus who requested to remain anonymous.
In an email sent to SCAD Security, another student voiced similar concerns. Buckovich, who developed the gang strategy for the state of Virginia, responded by saying “the only reason we’re doing this is to provide another level of a safety for our university… one way is to know who’s in your building.”
Better identification is the proposed goal, but SCAD Security insists it won’t work without the student body’s cooperation, particularly from the upperclassman, who have a strong influence on the freshmen.
On social media, the issue has already become controversial. According to T, “Yik Yak people talk about it all the time. They say ‘take off the stupid lanyards. You look stupid.’” But that doesn’t stop her from wearing hers. “I think it’s funny,” she said, mocking Yik Yak users.
The student body is left with mixed views on the subject.
At the Hive it isn’t uncommon to find first-years wearing their lanyards, but at upperclassman residence halls, the trend has yet to catch on. Whether or not it does will be up to SCAD security’s enforcement of the policy.
