Charlotte Korer ’27
Copy Editor Intern
On Nov. 12, the security stationed in front of Denison Library was removed, nearly a month after Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Mary Hatcher-Skeers emailed the Scripps student body regarding new entry protocols, including private security stationed outside the entryway and required ID swipe in.
“One of the things that was so heart-breaking for me about the security is that no one was ever at Denison,” an anonymous Denison Staff Member ’25 said. “Which made sense because people didn’t like having their bag searched, their water bottle taken away, and that whole thing is not pleasant.” Without security, library patrons are less intimidated to use the study space as it was intended.
In the following weeks, as students continued to express their disapproval of the security, the administration’s original fear of Denison vandalism seemed to die down. In an email to The Scripps Voice, Hatcher-Skeers said that she took part in its removal “in consultation with senior staff and Jennifer Martinez Wormser, director of the Denison Library.”
From the beginning, Denison student staff were the most reluctant regarding the increased security measures and felt they were informed of the changes as an afterthought. There was no direct communication between Scripps administration and Denison student staff.
“Two weeks after the study-in, Jennifer received an email that said the security measures were going to be implemented for the rest of the semester,” the anonymous Denison worker said. “That was really bad for our [Denison staff] morale because it felt like it was going to go on forever.”
While administration said additional security would last through the Fall semester, security measures ended up being removed before Thanksgiving break. Denison student staff received no explicit notice of what security at Denison would look like in the future.
“I don’t know how they ended up deciding to go back on that, but that was done when I went to Amy’s [Marcus-Newhall] office hours and she told us that she had played a role in that [removing security],” the Denison worker said.
After Thanksgiving break, the security measures were lightened at Denison but only partially repealed.
“We came in the next morning and the security was gone,” the Denison worker said. “However, with that being said, they still had the scanning device being used and they still blocked off the metal gating around the Rare Book Room.”
Students must now tap into Denison rather than show their ID for the paper tallies of school origin kept by staff members in the past.
“Tap entry aligns with best practices for libraries,” Hatcher-Skeers said in her email. “Over winter break, we will be installing a permanent card reader like that used at Honnold Library, the same type that is used at the Tiernan Field House and Mallott Commons.”
Information from the ID tap-in station, introduced simultaneously with the private security, was originally inaccessible to Denison Library staff.
“We did not initially have access to who was tapping in, we didn’t know where it was going, but it was not going to Denison,” the anonymous student worker said. “That changed when we went to Amy’s [Marcus-Newhall] office hours and told her that.”
Marcus-Newhall was able to give Denison the information from the card readers. Staff members now use the tap-in information to track how many students enter Denison from each 5C daily. This implementation improved access and use of Denison Library and its resources. Student staff members did not know what the card reader was used for before the Denison workers had access.
“Denison has been trying to have tap access like Honnold does just to make our internal statistics easier for several years now,” the anonymous student said. “The way it was done makes some staff members uncomfortable because it seems like a reaction to things and a continuation of over-policing.”
While the new tap-in system benefitted Denison’s statistics, the timing gave the wrong impression to some students. The administration’s access to which students swiped into Denison, amid Pomona’s recent campus bans, made some students nervous about being associated with a highly surveilled area.
“They’re still not letting people bring in water bottles or drinks, they have to leave them on our Researcher’s Table shelves,” the anonymous student worker said. “Which is kind of a silly rule because we have coasters specifically so people can bring in their drinks.”
Despite some lasting changes, student staff noticed that Denison Library patrons seemed less intimidated to use the space without private security.
“There have been a lot more people studying at Denison and a lot more people coming back to Denison,” the anonymous student worker said. “It’s been really nice to see people enjoying the space again, that’s the most important thing for us as Denison staff.”
Photo Courtesy: Scripps College
