All faculty, students and staff working in the BioMedical facilities will need to display Brown IDs visibly at all times beginning Dec. 15, the BioMed Facilities Planning and Operations office announced last month.
The policy, announced in an e-mail from Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing, applies to all students, faculty and staff working in the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences, BioMed Center, Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, Walter Hall, Arnold Laboratory, the Plant Environmental Center and 121 South Main St., which serves as the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.
Peter Holden, director of BioMed Facilities Planning and Operations, said the policy has been in the making for years.
"We tried to put the program in place two years ago, originally, and it didn't get the full support," Holden said. "Dr. Wing really pushed it forward for us."
Wing became dean in July.
Although the policy applies to anyone working in the buildings, Holden said, it would not be enforced around classrooms.
No single event prompted the new security measure, he said, but rather a general interest in improving security and safety.
"There's no smoking gun or something that happened," he said. "You are dealing with laboratories that have chemicals and materials. ... You have to have people properly trained to go into those spaces."
But Holden cited security concerns as well. "In the last year, in the BioMed research buildings, we've had about six laptop thefts," he said. "If we could prevent a few of them through this policy or other policies, that's what we've got to do. ... We're looking to say, how can we improve security in our buildings without compromising the way of life?"
Karen Scanlan, communications manager for BioMed medical affairs, said Wing, who signed off on the policy, fully supported the change.
"It's certainly something that we all support here," she said.
But some students and faculty seemed unsure of the motivation behind the shift. Roy Poses, clinical associate professor of medicine, said he didn't know what to think.
"The reasons for it weren't well-explained," Poses said. "I know nothing more than what was in the memo. ... It's curious and it's cryptic."
Kartik Venkatesh '06 MD'10, president of the Medical Student Senate, said he had yet to hear many students mention the change, but he expected that might change once the policy takes effect. He said the Senate is "hoping to get some student feedback to talk about it" at its meeting next week.
Venkatesh said he thought the new policy would affect first- and second-year medical students most. "Third- and fourth-year students - it's different for them, because they're at the hospitals, so they're not really even on campus," he said. "It's going to be the biggest difference for the first two years in terms of, you know, having to actually wear their IDs."
Med students interviewed by The Herald in the BioMed Center on Tuesday had mixed feelings about the new policy.
Second-year med student Heidi Wilder '06 MD'11 described the change as "kind of weird."
"I'm not aware of any particular security concern here," Wilder said. "If there was a particular reason given, I'm not sure I would be opposed to it."
First-year med student Joe Grossman MD'12 echoed similar sentiments. "I came from New York, where there were a lot of incidents," he said. "I'm not sure how necessary it is in this building."
The policy will only be problematic if it is enforced "to an absurd degree," said James Azzi MD'12. "Then I think it might potentially be irritating."
