Offended By Low Opinion

I am writing in response to Chancellor Silber’s letter on the Guest Policy. It seems from the published letter that he believes the only reason 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 Boston University has such a low opinion of us students.

There are several other reasons 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 afterward, 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. As college students, they don’t live on the nine-to-five schedule 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 as just a victim of an overprotective 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, and no way to stop it, since, according to current policy, it’s legit. If the policy were to change to allow BU students into all dorms, there would be more of a sense that someone fighting to get in doesn’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, they should just move off campus. Students have been unhappy with the Guest Policy, and they do 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 it forced off campus 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 2002-03 academic year. I see very little in the 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 can you do? It’s not like BU is going to let you into another dorm so you can crash on a friend’s floor …