Response to Silber’s Letter

I am writing in response to Chancellor Silber’s letter on the guest policy. It seems from the letter that was published that he believes the only reason that students wish to change the guest policy is to make it easier for sexual partners to come and go as they please. I am offended that the Chancellor of the university has such a low opinion of us students. There are several other reasons why students would want to get into each other’s dorms after midnight. First of all I find that if I go out with friends and we try to go back to a dorm afterwards it is usually impossible. Also if for some reason plans fall through and I try to just go over somewhere and watch a movie with a friend I am unable to get into a dorm other than my own unless I make plans before midnight. Next, there is the idea that students start studying after midnight. BU students are generally active people with busy schedules and being college students, they don’t live on the 9 to 5 schedule that the administration does. It is not abnormal in any way for a student to sit down at one in the morning to start studying or doing homework. Is it so much to ask that there be a way to incorporate impromptu group work into this different time schedule? And finally of course there is the idea that if the rules are too strict, they will accomplish the exact opposite of the original purpose. With so many restrictive rules about when people can enter dorms and how they have to be signed in many people regard anyone having trouble getting into a dorm just a victim of over-protective policy. Everyone has at one time seen someone lingering by a guard booth asking people as they leave, “Hey I’m trying to surprise my friend, can you sign me in?” And every time I have seen this, the person gets into the building. Why? Because students are sympathetic to the idea that getting into a dorm that isn’t your own on campus is ridiculously difficult and find it most likely that the person is a student just trying to get into the building to see a friend. There is no way for the current system to detect people like this getting into the dorms and no way to stop it since according to current policy, it’s legit. If the policy were to change to allow BU students in to all dorms there would be more of a sense that someone fighting to get in didn’t really belong there. Chancellor Silber finishes his letter by telling students if they are unhappy with the policies that come with living on campus that they should just move off campus. Students have been unhappy with the guest policies and they did move off campus. That is why the Student Village was built and why the construction continues. BU is trying to bring back all of the students they forced off campus back with housing so luxurious and cheap (comparatively) that it is impossible to refuse. The requests for changes in the guest policy are not in any way unreasonable and should be enacted for the 2002-2003 academic year. I see very little in Chancellor’s letter to persuade me otherwise. Sure it’s annoying when your roommate brings home a boyfriend/girlfriend. But the current policies don’t stop it. Those students just learn how to get around them. And then what are you left to do? It’s not like BU is going to let you into another dorm so you can crash on a friends floor…

Erin Wilson SMG ’05 617-352-8945