Students who use the Academic Information Resource Center can expect to keep their OneCard handy with finals approaching as entry to the 24-hour building will be controlled to not let just anybody in.

Recurring reports of homeless people sleeping in the building and Shawan Wimberley, a registered sex offender who committed two counts of felony indecent exposure on campus, led the AIRC to enforce monitored OneCard entry starting Nov. 1, said Vice President of IRT Larry Gilbert.

“Reports from students [said] there were transients in the building,” Gilbert said. “There were people just interfering so what it did for me was verify that we really did need to make a change in access to the building after hours just for the general safety of students.”

Gilbert first heard about the sex offender in a meeting with Police Chief Mark Iwasa when they were initially talking about changing access to the AIRC. He found the incident highly inappropriate, but was not surprised it happened because the building is always open.

Iwasa, when asked about the sex offender at the AIRC, said it was not unusual for incidents like these to happen at a public university, let alone a 24-hour building.

“We’re gonna continue to do what we normally do, which is try to be as diligent as we can on the campus and provide the campus community with any active series,” Iwasa said.

Signage around all entry points of the AIRC will say only the sliding glass door on the side of the building will remain open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Gilbert said. Signs will also advise students not to allow anyone inside when exiting.

Students will be required to slide their OneCard through a card swipe machine with a Community Service Officer monitoring entry to ensure only students and staff access

“We already have CSOs in the building anytime we’re open, but after 7 p.m., the CSO will be stationed at the entry to make sure only people that are supposed in the building are in here,” Gilbert said.

Fifth year child development major Tirrell Day uses the facilities for hours at a time and said he would feel safer if there was a card swipe to get in after hours.

“If I’m there at night, I want to feel safe cause I’ll probably want to feel my computer sitting around,” Day said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to come and attack me at night if I want to stay at Sac State and do homework.”

Gilbert said the new entry policy should be effective as more transients tend to show up at the AIRC when it gets colder, reducing conflicts between students and non-students.

The AIRC directly prohibits sleeping in the building. It is understood if a student falls asleep while working, but spending the night is not.

“I’ve come in a number of mornings and seen as many as two or three people just laid out even with blankets and stuff on the couches,” Gilbert. “What we do is call campus police and they come out and ask the person to show ID.”

The AIRC’s security footage, keeps track of frequent vagrants who try to blend in more with students to stay in the building.

“Many of them go out of their way to clean themselves up, to behave,” Gilbert said. “A number of them actually come in with a laptop or computer so it’s really hard to differentiate them from students.”

Day said he notices homeless people would try to blend in with other students but spots distinctions because of his frequent commuting.

“I get on light rails all the time and I ride the train and walk everywhere so I can kind of tell,” Day said. “Usually they have bags. Students usually only have backpacks but usually they have duffell bags or weird bags that you don’t need to go to school.”