The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate last week adopted a resolution that recommends several changes to clarify and simplify the Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) overnight guest registration policy.
The overnight dorm guest policy is currently outlined in Habitats, the university's handbook on residential life. There are a number of rules related to the policy that are imprecise, according to junior Christopher Snyder, who authored the original resolution presented to the Senate.
"I read the policy in Habitats and right away noticed a few things that seemed somewhat problematic," Snyder said. "This resolution listed concerns I had after reviewing the policy … things that ResLife should change so that it makes more sense."
The current policy states that any student planning to host a guest overnight, whether a Tufts or non−Tufts student, must complete a form at least three business days in advance indicating the name of the guest and number of nights he or she will spend. It further stipulates that a guest may not stay for more than three consecutive nights.
The resolution suggests that the policy should be modified to require host students to register only non−Tufts guests.
The resolution also calls for the policy to provide a more specific definition of "overnight" and to allow hosts in single rooms to register their guests without the required three−day advance notice.
Out of students polled in the Fall 2009 Senate Survey, 47.9 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the overnight guest policy in general.
The Senate had already identified the guest registration policy as an issue when Snyder brought his concerns to the body's Administration and Policy Committee on April 11, according to Senator Wyatt Cadley, a freshman. The final resolution was adopted on the same day.
"Although it was not a top [Senate] priority, it was a priority, because if you looked at just the policy part of it, there were a lot of elements that didn't make sense," Cadley said. "The policy was not being consistently enforced, and [residential assistants] were showing a certain amount of flexibility with it. What we saw here is that the ResLife policies had good intentions but are not practical."
Senator Jon Danzig, a sophomore, recently met with Director of ResLife Yolanda King and ResLife's Assistant Director for Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie Ales−Rich to discuss potential changes to the policy.
"I arranged the meeting with ResLife in order to try to make guest registration easier and clearer for students," Danzig said. "At that meeting, they seemed very open to many of the changes that would end up on Chris' resolution."
King and Ales−Rich indicated that the changes called for in the resolution were already in practice to some extent. According to Danzig, the two administrators said their office only enforces the policy for non−Tufts guests. They also added that the need to register three days in advance is a general guideline, not a stringent rule.
Danzig explained that with this resolution, the Senate hopes to make the registration protocol easier for students to understand and abide by in the future.
Following the meeting, Snyder submitted to the Senate the resolution calling for revisions to the ResLife policy. The final resolution will be presented to ResLife staff in the coming week or so, according to Cadley.
The Senate also hopes that these recommendations and discussions will help to improve communication between the student body and ResLife.
"The resolution also touches on a larger issue: to reexamine the way the student body and ResLife work together," Cadley said. "This resolution takes a lot of steps in addressing interactions with ResLife."
Snyder said that the fact that ResLife would create rules that are not enforced is misleading for students.
"The problem with ResLife policy is that there are several gaps between goals for ResLife policy and the actual policy," Snyder said. "This goes to the heart of a number of ResLife policies. They seem like strict policies, but there are so many exceptions, as it turns out, that you might as well not follow the policy."
