Students can’t enter the Mary Couts Burnett Library from the west side without swiping their ID at the security, but those coming in from the east side have open access until midnight.

The east side security gates remain open most of the time because students who were studying on the west side and wanted to go to the café but forgot their IDs complained they couldn’t get back to their stuff, said Kerry Bouchard, director of library automated systems.

She added the west side gates, which are at the University Drive entrance, are for security and always require a TCU ID.

The gates on the east side, or near Rees-Jones Hall, are meant to prevent theft of library materials.

After midnight, the east side security gates are closed for everyone, including those with TCU IDs, said June Koelker, dean of the library.

The library has not had many problems with security in the past because a prevention approach is taken, Koelker said.

“We want TCU students to feel safe and welcome to come to the library at all hours, she said. We recognize that security is very important and put in place both security gates and the services of a library guard.”

Students say the security gates allow them to feel safer in the library.

“If there was no security gates at all in the library I wouldn’t feel safe, particularly at night,” said William Younan, a senior economics major.  “TCU has a lot of neighboring communities, and a lot of non-TCU students would have access to our library.”