BU Changes Rooming Rules

While the College is deciding how to accommodate students who need gender-neutral housing, Boston University’s policy of not allowing undergraduates to host guests of the opposite sex in their rooms may change come September.

Currently, BU students cannot use their ID’s to swipe into dorms other than their own after 8 p.m. In order to have visitors, students must obtain a three-day guest pass 24 hours ahead of time. Guests of the opposite sex must be signed in by a co-host of the same sex.

Under the new policy proposed by Dean Kenneth Elmore, the process of registering an overnight guest visit will be quicker. A three-day guest pass will no longer be required except for the eight largest residences. Students will also gain access to dorms between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m. the next day.

Rose L. Weiner, a junior at BU who moved off campus her sophomore year, said that the current guest restrictions kept her from studying effectively with fellow students.

“You need to check someone in by a certain time,” Weiner said. “Otherwise they have to sign themselves in, and after a certain time they can’t get into the dorm.”

Despite their restrictiveness, the strict guest policy has benefited the students, BU’s Director of Media Relations Colin D. Riley said.

“You have to remember what was happening 20 years ago,” he says, referring to the time before the current rules were enacted. “It wasn’t an environment conducive to learning.”

Riley said that were “many disruptions” and students were moving off campus.

According to Riley, 80 percent of BU students live in on-campus residences, and with the completion of new facilities, the figure will rise to 90 percent.

In 2004, Harvard enacted 24-hour universal swipe access among the upperclassman Houses and as of last fall, all students can swipe into freshman dorms.

Asked if there had been requests from students for a stricter guest policy, Undergraduate Council President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 said that “sentiments like those have not been expressed to me.”