Kimmel Food Court hired private security guards this month to check student ID cards upon entry on Friday and Saturday nights.

Sgt. John Sardino of the Department of Public Safety said that the ID-checking policy has been in place since 1992, but students were hired to check IDs. Large crowds often overwhelmed the hired students on Friday and Saturday nights, he said, prompting the switch to Chestnut Security Company.

Students without their IDs and non-SU students will be turned away by the security guards. Students may bring a guest who is not an SU student, but that person must have a valid ID. If the food court begins to exceed its capacity, students will have to wait to enter.

Even though the ID-checking policy has been in place since 1992, many students are just noticing. Lynne Mowers, the office coordinator of SU Food Services, said in an e-mail that this is because there is a new sign alerting students to the requirement and a different person checking IDs.

‘We replace signs periodically, and the sign you are referring to at Kimmel was recently replaced,’ Mowers said. ‘In fact, the new sign was installed over the old sign. Since it is brand new, it has been noticed much more than the older sign.’

There was no particular incident that prompted the change, Sardino said. Patrons at Kimmel on Friday and Saturday night would often exceed the fire safety capacity limit, especially after events at Schine Student Center, he said.

‘We just made enhancements,’ Sardino said. ‘This wasn’t something we were scrambling to fix, but now Kimmel is a little better and safer.’

Despite Mowers’ assertion that ID checking is only becoming more widely noticed, many students who frequently go to Kimmel said they have never had their IDs checked. Chris Parker, a sophomore advertising, marketing and entrepreneurship major, ate at Kimmel often when he lived in DellPlain Hall last year. Not once did he have his ID checked on weekends during that time, he said.

Many students said they do not feel the weekend ID checking is necessary. Parker said he does not think overcrowding is a problem at Kimmel, so there is no need to regulate attendance.

‘It’s a waste of resources and a waste of time. There’s a lot of other problems on campus that need fixing,’ he said

Sara Bonacquist, a freshman landscape architecture major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said she does not think ID checking will help make Kimmel safer because it is not very thorough. She had a non-SU friend come with her to Kimmel last weekend, and he was not asked for ID, she said

‘I just said he was with me, and they let us in,’ Bonacquist said. ‘So I don’t really know what it’s going to do.’

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Published on February 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm