After two female residents signed two men they did not know into their Boston University dorm early Sunday morning, and the men allegedly assaulted two other female residents, students and administrators have been taking stands on personal responsibility and the university’s relaxed guest policy that went into effect last September.
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said the residents who gave the alleged attackers access to Claflin Hall will face judicial actions. While the current guest policy allows residents to sign in guests between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., as had not been permitted by the past policy, it still maintains that “residents are responsible for the conduct and activity of their guests.”
“It’s important for people to know who they’re signing in,” Elmore said. “In effect, they’ve got keys to a building that they access . . . and they will be held accountable for the guests they sign in.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley would not say whether the guest policy would be revised, but said students have always been responsible for their guests.
“Personal responsibility has always played a role in [the guest policy],” Riley said. “We’re a campus with a lot of visitors. The policy was in place primarily for the safety and security of our students.”
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Mary Picarella, a second-floor Claflin resident, said “it says something” that the assaults reported in BU residence halls this year were in primarily freshmen dormitories. She said safety may be worth the inconvenience of a stricter guest policy.
“Of course for my own convenience, I wouldn’t want the guest policy to change,” Picarella said. “But given that there are risks like [sexual assault], it does make me question it.”
CAS sophomore Rabia Malick said she thinks it was equally likely an assault could have happened under the old policy.
School of Education sophomore Matt Raymond, a 12th-floor Claflin resident, said he does not blame the guest policy for what was reported Sunday and said he has a few friends who experienced similar incidents under the old policy.
“I think security does as much a job as it can, and I don’t think the guest policy is to blame for it,” Raymond said. “I think they had gotten in because someone signed them in, so I think if anything, the students that live here should be more aware.”
Security guidelines detailing student responsibility were sent to students in an email from the Dean of Students Office and posted throughout the building Sunday.
Raymond said the email sent out to students made the incident sound more serious than it was, causing him to jump to conclusions. He said the victim later told him what actually happened.
“[What actually happened] is serious,” he said. “It’s an invasion of privacy, but it’s not as serious as the email made it sound.”
CAS freshman Annie Thorne said she had an encounter with one of the men who had entered the building and who was not accompanied by the resident who signed him in. She said she attempted to help the man, one of those arrested Sunday, to find the elevator after he bothered one of her friends. She said he told her he refused to leave without her. She said she told him she was going to bed, but he said he was going to come with her. Eventually, Thorne said she escorted him downstairs and went to bed.
Thorne said an hour after she went to bed, the same man entered her room, but left when she shouted at him.
CAS freshman and sixth-floor Claflin resident Erin Roussel said she heard the men knocking on doors and making noise in the hall around 3 a.m.
“All I heard was, ‘We’re opening girls’ doors, it’s hilarious!'” Roussel said. “They were so loud . . . They thought it was funny or something.”
During the fall semester, The Daily Free Press reported that five alleged sexual assaults had been reported to BU police. An alleged assault in Warren Towers Sept. 30, which remained under investigation last month, also prompted community reflection on the guest policy that allowed both the alleged victim and attacker to enter Warren Towers.
Staff reporter Katrina Ballard contributed reporting to this article.
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