The Residence Life Committee announced a new Guest Policy proposal during Monday night’s weekly Student Union Senate meeting, calling for changes in the current systems for paperwork, overnight guests and rights for students living off-campus.

The committee proposed campus-wide changes to improve visitor regulations and decreases in the amount of paperwork necessary to have an overnight guest of the opposite sex. According to the proposal, student hosts would be allowed to have guests of the opposite sex stay in their rooms without gathering signatures from co-hosts, though they would still be required to get the signatures of their roommates or suitemates.

The proposal also suggests possible improvements in technology to reduce the necessary paperwork.

“BU needs to update the technology used to implement the guest policy,” Vice President of Residence Life Mike Myers said at the meeting. “If they were to change the technology, it would make the Guest Policy a lot easier to deal with.”

The proposal recommends that there be an electronic database that would allow students to fill out overnight guest forms online. Students would then be able to submit their information to the Office of Residence Life quickly and the information would be available to guards when guests arrive and would also allow the school to track guests easier, according to the proposal.

“When your guest comes in, [the guards] can just go on the internet, type the name in the database and there they are,” Myers said.

The Union is also proposing that administrators improve dorm accessibility for students living off campus. Currently, students who move off campus are not allowed the same access to BU facilities as those that live on campus, the proposal states.

The proposal recommends that off-campus students with meal plans be allowed to sign themselves into any dormitory with a dining hall during its hours of operation.

“What we’re saying is give off-campus BU students access to dorms,” said Sen. Ethan Clay (10 Buick St.). That would eliminate any chance that off-campus residents would solicit random residents for access to dining halls, the proposal says.

The Student Residences at 10 Buick St. and the West Campus dormitories were the primary focus of changes to the Guest Policy within the proposal. The committee argued that the current policy stifles socialization among residents of the dorms.

“Our committee recognizes the desire, possibility and ability of students to socialize or study on any night of a given week depending on their weekly schedules, study habits and social behavior,” the proposal reads. “At present, students incur violations for attempting to fulfill their natural social habits.”

The committee suggested that the proposed policies be tested in dormitories in which upperclassmen live, specifically at 10 Buick St., because they have been in a collegiate environment longer and can handle more responsibility.

The committee suggested that BU implement a program for “social extensions,” for which a BU guest would be allowed to sign themselves into the dorm and stay until noon the next day. Each resident would be allowed one guest per night to limit overcrowding.

“Right now we have a Guest Policy proposal that is focusing on large dormitory-style residences [and 10 Buick St.], not South Campus or Bay State Road,” Clay said.

Clay called 10 Buick St. the “perfect place to experiment with this proposal,” and said he believes some of the proposals that will be experimented in upperclassmen dorms will eventually become widespread, allowing all students to benefit from them.

The committee also proposed changes designed to build community among the three West Campus dorms. Each West Campus dorm has different amenities that should be open to all West Campus residents 24 hours a day, the proposal reads. The Resident Hall Associations for Claflin, Sleeper and Rich Halls have been combined to form one RHA that encompasses all of West Campus, and the buildings should be treated as one in all respects, the committee says.

The proposal, which Union officials presented to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore for review last Friday, compares BU to itself, as opposed to past proposals which stressed comparing BU to other universities, according to Sen. Jon Marker (Warren Towers).

“We’re assuming the administration is going to engage us in an open conversation and engage the rest of the student body,” he said. “If they choose not to do that we will be going back and offering them more of a discussion and seeing if we can start the discussion up ourselves more than the proposal.”