It's pretty common to have U.S. universities lock buildings at night as well, just not as early as 7pm, with exceptions such as computer labs, libraries, etc. I

It's pretty common to have U.S. universities lock buildings at night as well, just not as early as 7pm, with exceptions such as computer labs, libraries, etc. It's generally a pretty good idea to lock up large buildings with a huge amount of capital equipment inside them when they're not being used. I'd say most universities are open with public events but would otherwise like their resources dedicated to students, both for resource allocation and safety. It makes pretty good sense. I'm not entirely sure I get the complaints here. Are people pining that hard to randomly walk around MIT and the buildings when they have zero affiliation with the university? Although I don't think this is possible at MIT in particular, most U.S. universities will give you limited access to their libraries, even private ones.