Office of Housing tightens ID collection

Identification cards of students signing into Boston University residences are being more stringently collected and taken to the Office of Housing at the end of guard workshifts under BU’s revamped guest policy, students and Office of Residence Life director Jack Weldon said this week after a week under the new policy.

The new policy requires that residence hall security supervisors on duty collect the IDs of students who do not sign out by the proper times and bring them to the Office of Housing, Weldon said. IDs are now collected toward the later end of the supervisor’s shift, which ends at 8 a.m., Weldon said.

The changes to BU’s ID collection policy affect only residence hall visitors because the ID numbers of dormitory residents are no longer required to access campus residences, Weldon said. People named on visitors’ sign-in sheets will not be penalized for the visitors’ errors. Visitors must obtain collected IDs at 985 Commonwealth Ave.

The more stringent collection of IDs will give the Office of Housing a good idea of how many students actually stay past the allowed times, Office of Housing director Marc Robillard said yesterday.

‘It allows us to meet with the student and ask them why they violated the policy, and explain any confusion that the student may have,’ he said. ‘It also helps us to get the word out that you cannot violate this policy.’

Robillard said the Office of Housing will be continually monitoring the effects of the policy changes throughout the semester and summarizing the new policy’s results at the end of the semester.

Brian Ayotte, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the more rigid ID collection policy is more of a pain than a real problem.

‘Now in the morning after a study extension, besides waking up an hour earlier, you have to go downstairs, get your ID before 7 a.m., and then stand there and wait until 7 a.m. to swipe back in,’ Ayotte said. ‘By the time we were ready to swipe back in, there were eight or nine people standing there also waiting to sign back in.’

The guest policy changes have been in effect since the beginning of the semester. Under the new policy, on-campus BU residents are allowed to sign into any campus dormitory on their own between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m., rather than needing a resident’s ID number to sign in. Campus residents can also sign-in to campus residences between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. with a resident’s signature.

Though Ayotte said the guard he had dealt with on the new policy seemed ‘pretty unpleasant about the whole thing,’ CAS freshman Michael Pardo said guards in general have seemed more relaxed about the guest policy in general over the past week.

‘I have noticed a change in the way security guards act: in one word, passive,’ Pardo said. ‘Particularly at Warren [Towers], security guards don’t take any notice of your ID.’

College of Communication sophomore Morgan Kessler said his standards for how strict the policy should be have changed since the new policy went into effect. Though the changes have made visiting friends a more relaxed experience, Kessler said the rules are still restrictive.

‘Before the changes were made, I thought that it was obnoxious to have to sign in every time I wanted to visit a friend,’ Kessler said. ‘I appreciate the fact that this isn’t much of a problem anymore, but at the same time, I need to have a place of my own. These new policies allow my roommates’ friends to come over more often, so for me, the changes in the policy are both liberating and frustrating.’

Several other students also said they recognized the Student Union’s efforts to change the guest policy, but expressed aggravation toward the minimal changes in the policy.

‘Compared to other schools, like Northeastern, [the guest policy] is not that free,’ said Matt Rutty, a freshman in the School of Management. ‘It’s a lot better than last semester, but it’s still not as free as I would like it to be.’

College of Communication sophomore Emily Johnson said she was also disappointed in the seemingly small amount the policy has changed.

‘It’s great that changes have been made since it shows that the Student Union’s efforts are not in vain,’ she said. ‘But the changes are rather insignificant when viewing the overall system.’

College of Engineering sophomore Tyler Russell said though the relaxed policy’s first week has been a breath of fresh air, he was a bit confused as to the actual extent of the changes.

‘I thought that any BU student could swipe in to any dorm, but you still have to leave an ID,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think that you had to do that.’

Robillard said the Office of Housing has been expecting a certain amount of confusion among students with the new changes. Office of Housing officials educated campus security guards and residence hall staff about the policy changes.

‘Anytime you change a procedure, there will be some confusion,’ said Director of the Office of Housing Marc Robillard. ‘There are 11,000 students on campus, and thus, 11,000 different interpretations of the procedures.’

‘As we go along, we are evaluating the policy to see if it makes sense and if students understand it,’ he said later.

Weldon expressed concern over the possibility that some students might take advantage of the new policy by allowing more visitors into their room or suite, thus posing a distraction to a studying roommate.

‘One thing we have to safeguard is roommate rights,’ Weldon said. ‘If this turns into a problem, then maybe we will have to tighten up on the policy.’

Changes may need to be made if Office of Housing monitoring efforts reveal that students are abusing the policy, he said.

‘If we examine the policy and find something such as more noise violations or vandalism, then we need to analyze that,’ Weldon said. ‘We then may have to limit who gets into each residence hall.’

Student Union Vice President of residence life Sumit Mittal said though the guest policy has been changed, it will still be up to students to prove that they are worthy of a more relaxed policy.

‘Students will definitely need to show that they are the mature responsible adults that the Student Union believes they are and that we had argued them to be in the University Perspectives Proposal this past March,’ Mittal said.

Weldon, however, seemed confident in students’ ability to abide by the policy.

‘I think that students are more conscientious and responsible today than they were 15 years ago,’ he said. ‘Now, Boston University students are more academically motivated, and many insist that it should be quiet enough to study in the residence halls.’