Officials in the Offices of Housing and Residence Life spent winter break updating the university’s systems for changes to the guest policy, which take effect as students come back to campus this semester.
Computer systems were updated, staff were trained and new visitor passes were printed over the break, according to Office of Housing Director Marc Robillard. The changes did not take much effort, he said.
‘It’s really a straightforward change for us,’ Robillard said. ‘We just printed up signs stating the new guest policy, and during the training for staff, covered the new policy with a question and answer session.’
The changes required new visitor passes, which were altered to allow students who reside on-campus to sign themselves into dormitories with security. Students who choose to live off-campus will still need a signature from a building’s resident to access on-campus housing.
According to Robillard, the expense was minimal.
‘We’ve kept the cost to under one thousand dollars,’ Robillard said. ‘The majority of that was printing up the new passes.’
Upon returning to the dormitories, students will be greeted by signs announcing the new policy and will receive fliers with information about the changes.
‘While we relax some of the restrictions, we need to monitor it and make sure that everyone knows the procedures,’ said Office of Residence Life Director John T. Weldon. ‘We have not spent much money, but it may cost us more money suddenly if we go back to a situation where there is more of animal-like atmosphere with fire alarms being pulled. By distributing these fliers, we hope everyone will be aware and be responsible.’
Weldon also said the Office of Residence Life will monitor the quality of life under the altered policy this semester in comparison to last semester’s policy.
‘Dr. Silber wants to ensure that students are still going to be able to sleep and study,’ Weldon said. ‘We’ll be comparing noise violations, disruptive behavior and complaints … at the end of the week by checking in with the hall staff.’
Changes taking effect today include easier access to large residence halls for BU students residing on campus. All campus residents can access large residence halls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. After that, those students are allowed to enter from 8 p.m. until midnight, as long as students declare a reason.
Guests can now enter buildings until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The old policy’s visitation hours ended at 12 a.m. Students still must leave by 1 a.m. on weeknights and 2:30 a.m. on weekends, unless they have a study extension.
The new policy also allows students two more overnight guest passes per semester, totaling seven passes per semester. Students are still not allowed to have non-BU student overnight visitors during the first two weeks of the semester or during reading and exam periods.
Students also have ’emergency overnight guest passes,’ allowing parents and siblings, regardless of sex, to stay in dorms with the permission of a resident’s roommates.
The policy’s changes are only applicable to students living on-campus. Students who live off-campus must still be signed in to campus dormitories.
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