First-year students can't remember a time when the gates on Greene Street were open.
But upperclassmen can recall driving over the Gamecock, past the Russell House University Union before construction blocked off the roadway indefinitely.
The debate on whether to open the gates or keep them shut raged on in student senate Wednesday night, when Sen. Brian Samples announced he was assembling a coalition to support opening the gates back up.
At the moment, the gates are kept closed at all times. Many senators have argued that students have already become so used to crossing the street without looking for cars that it would be hazardous to open the gates for any amount of time. The proposed alternative is to keep the gates open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights.
Sen. Lee Goble said students gave him mixed reactions on the issue — he estimated a roughly 50-50 split on the issue.
Out of the 46 students Sen. Ian Shannon heard from — though he admitted his poll was biased toward business students — eight people wanted the gates closed at all times, and all eight lived on campus. Based on this information, he suggested that there might be a divide among the student body on the issue, based on whether students live on or off-campus.
“The ultimate argument is coming down between convenience and safety," Student Body President Lindsay Richardson said. Richardson argued there are more students crossing Greene Street than ever before, and she would never feel comfortable choosing convenience over safety.
Samples argued against the concerns for student safety by saying he had never seen any students get hurt while crossing Greene Street. This was met with the argument from other senators saying that, as a sophomore, he's had little experience with the gates being kept open.
Proponents of opening the gates pointed to the convenience of using Greene Street for dropping off or picking up a friend. Senators also acknowledged that with the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. plan, the gates would only be open after most classes are over, so the busy foot traffic to and from class would be uninterrupted by cars.
"We actually had some really good discussion today," Student Body President Donnie Iorio said when the meeting came to a close.