When he comes to the University Center, 65-year-old retiree Douglas Rissler uses the wireless Internet to catch up on news, read his email and continue an online role-playing game he began nearly a decade ago.
He is often in the UCENT lobby, coming from his home in the Coronado Hotel, fewer than four blocks away. He likes that location because of its proximity to campus and the Phoenix Public Library.
But a new ASU policy beginning Monday could force Rissler and all other non-ASU-affiliated community members to find another place to hang out.
“It’s totally unfair,” Rissler said. “I can see why they want to do this though. I just think it’s wrong.”
The new policy implemented by the Downtown campus deans limits use of university buildings to “ASU students, faculty and staff, individuals or groups associated or affiliated with or invited by the University, and building tenants and their invitees,” according to signage in the buildings.
This policy change is in response to students being uneasy about non-university people, specifically transients, using common spaces of university buildings, said Christopher Callahan, Downtown campus vice provost and dean of the Walter Cronkite School.
“We’re a university, we’re here to serve students. When students have significant concerns, we act,” he said. “If students believe there’s a problem, there’s a problem.”
Callahan said safety worries began as soon as students came downtown and primarily revolve around the UCENT lobby and library in the UCENT basement.
People began wanting a policy similar to this one since the campus opened several years ago, he said.
He said in the last six months, calls for it have become louder, but there wasn’t a specific instance triggering the new policy.
Callahan said he has spoken to students who won’t use common areas in Downtown buildings because of the non-ASU people and transients in the area.
Already at ASU, there are spaces reserved for students only, including classrooms, lab areas, athletic facilities and dorms.
This type of policy is not uncommon for universities across the country, Callahan said.
“We’re a university. Most parts of most universities are not open to the general public, including this university,” he said.
Callahan said public events put on in ASU buildings, such as Cronkite’s Must See Mondays, will still be open to the public. Such public events will be considered automatic invitations to all community members.
In association with the new policy, Callahan said the ASU police aide stationed in UCENT – where students are most concerned about their safety – will be moved to the information desk in the middle of the lobby.
This will increase the visibility of the officials and help make them more accessible to people in UCENT, Callahan said.
“Everyone thought this was a logical use of resources,” he said.
While the land the UCENT is built on is owned by the city of Phoenix, and the city put large sums of money toward the Downtown campus, Sina Matthes, spokeswoman for the city of Phoenix, said any policy decisions are ASU’s.
The city leases the land to ASU, but the university is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the buildings, she said.
“If there’s a policy associated with that, it would be through ASU, not the city,” Matthes said.
ASU Police Cmdr. Jim Hardina said a similar policy was adopted before last semester by the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus to keep non-students out of student spaces.
While this policy change might seem like a big deal, it actually doesn’t change much, Hardina said.
There are code of conduct policies already in place for university buildings that detail how people can act, ranging from basic public disturbance laws and not making a mess to not having more than three bags in the buildings.
“To use a university building … you have to have a reason to use the facility and you have to use it for what it’s intended for,” Hardina said.
If a person — student, faculty or community member — is violating a policy, they can be asked to leave by any university faculty member, he said.
With the new policy, Hardina said if a person is breaking another university policy, a faculty member or police official can also ask to see a person’s university identification.
This distinction is to help ensure ASU police aides and officers aren’t profiling people who are in university buildings.
“Police officers can’t just walk up to people and ask ‘Are you a student?’,” Hardina said. “That’s profiling and it’s something we don’t do.”
If a person who has been identified as a non-university member keeps returning to a building, ASU Police can remove that person based on this new policy, Hardina said.
Early on, he said ASU Police will focus heavily on educating students, faculty and community member about the new policy, which will help the policy form a strong base for long-term use.
It may take several weeks to months before community members understand and abide by the policy, Hardina said.
The two probable end conclusions will be either community members come into the building and “play nice” or they simply stop coming, he said.
But even people like Rissler, who largely kept to himself while in the UCENT, will likely relocate because of this policy.
“I’ll just have to go to the library now,” Rissler said. “That’s a shame though. It was always nice to come over here.”
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
