Keep Dorms Open Over Break

I write to register my disdain at Boston University’s policy of closing dormitory-style residences over Thanksgiving and Spring breaks. Though administrators might intend to reunite sleep-deprived students with their families over holidays, the policy instead undermines undergraduates’ studies and safety.

Removing students from the dorms contradicts the Office of Residence Life’s mission —maintaining residence environments conducive to study — in that students must interrupt their studies for often substantial time periods in order to travel elsewhere and back, particularly during the brief, highly traveled Thanksgiving holiday. Even moderate-distance travel has become evidently more dangerous over this academic year.

Since the University remains open for parts of different breaks, and since professors generally do not take into account dorm closures when scheduling classwork, students should have the opportunity to stay on campus to finish homework and study for tests that immediately follow breaks. Also, students who intern or pursue professional training in the Boston area need a place to stay. Scholars whom BU expends great effort to recruit, such as athletes, international students and the extraordinarily bright and busy, must repeatedly endure both homesickness and the temporary loss of living quarters by living in a hotel or crashing elsewhere.

Many students also contribute economically and altruistically to the surrounding area. In December 2001, The Daily Free Press investigated how “Winter Break contributes to sales decline” for area businesses, and I believe that the decline also occurs more briefly during the other holidays. Given that the presence of fewer people means the presence of fewer people to deter crime, I wonder if the University and surrounding neighborhoods become slightly less safe when the dorms close. BU’s dorm-closing practice appears anomalous when compared to other institutions, as BC, Harvard and Tufts stand among our many college neighbors who let their students remain on campus for Thanksgiving, Spring and for some, intersession, breaks.

Why, then, does BU close the dorms? ORL and the Office of Housing provide the University’s closing as reason enough. I speculate they close the dorms because the dining halls close and dorm dwellers do not have kitchens; residence staff get an opportunity to verify that students comply with Residence License Agreements, and the students’ absence temporarily lightens ORL’s workload. However, I think they could accommodate students on campus over holidays with some effort. BU’s administration could keep a select few dining halls open for the much smaller crowds that remain on campus during the holidays, as they do after finals and before Commencement each year. Residence staff could show more trust for students by inspecting rooms in their residents’ presence.

Finally, I believe most students would leave campus for breaks anyway, and so ORL would still have less work than during classes. Though RAs always have the option of remaining on campus for breaks, few students would need to speak to their RAs during the breaks, giving RAs a well-deserved rest.

At the very least, I wish that ORL/Housing would more frequently look from the perspective of the students whom they serve and would provide reasons when making administrative decisions.