StuCo Seeks Extended V’s

After years of spirited debate, a new StuCo-approved amendment to the visitations policy would extend visitations for upperclassmen to 9 p.m. on weeknights. The proposal was approved Tuesday, striking what many hope will be a balance between student freedom and dorm responsibility.Only the first of the two-part proposal—the extra hour of visitations for upperclassmen—was approved by StuCo. The second part, which did not win StuCo support, advocated for extended visitations on Sundays, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., during which the faculty on duty can grant discretionary visitations at their convenience.“We voted to strike down part B of the proposal,” StuCo President senior Alice Ju said. “People felt that it would be a lot of extra work for faculty members, and we wanted to take on the V's policy one step at a time.”Although half of the plan was removed, the other half was enthusiastically supported.“Our proposal is to extend the current hours from 8 [p.m.] to 9 [p.m.] Monday-Friday for upperclassmen, and StuCo approved that unanimously,” Ju said. The current visitation hours run from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. for all classes, Monday through Friday nights. On Fridays that precede a no-class Saturday, however, visitations are granted from 7 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Visitations on Saturday run from 8 p.m. to 10:45 pm.To bolster the first part of the proposal, StuCo’s Executive Board noted that same-sex students from different dorms are allowed in another student’s room until 9:00 PM.“Permitting students of the same gender to remain in the dormitory until 9:00 p.m., while preventing students of the opposite gender from doing the same is discriminatory under the assumption that two students of the opposite gender are more disruptive to the dorm environment than two same-gender students,” the proposed amendment stated.Now that the revised amendment has been endorsed by StuCo, it will go before the dorm heads Monday night. The proposal will then be brought up in faculty meeting, if it gains enough support amongst dorm heads.StuCo’s Executive Board hopes to continue to make small but significant revisions to the V’s policy in the upcoming months. Once this proposal has been voted on by faculty, StuCo will assess where to go from there.The second element of the document acknowledged that if faculty are willing, they should be able to grant visitations on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. so that students have more time for healthy, safe interactions with the opposite sex. Students of the same gender have no restriction.The draft asserted that “All extended hours, like the current visitations policy, are entirely at the faculty’s discretion. If a faculty member is not able to grant visitations on Sunday afternoon, they are by no means obligated to do so.”When StuCo discussed the proposal before sending it to faculty on Tuesday, many disputed the advantage of Sunday visitations. The StuCo members in opposition conjectured that almost all dorm faculty would not grant visitations from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays, adding that the second part only hurt the proposed changes’ chances of being passed.As a result, a vote was held to determine if the second part should remain in the proposed document. Members vetoed the second section.Vice-President of Student Council Emily Lemmerman said the hope is to pass this proposal first, before looking to other areas of reform.