Faculty Pass New Visitations Policy

During the final faculty meeting of the 2018-19 academic school year—the day before graduation—the faculty voted to pass a new, more inclusive visitations policy that prohibits students from visiting dorm rooms they are not affiliated with, except during designated hours.

Visitations will begin Monday, Sept. 16 at the start of duty hours and continue until 7:55 p.m. for preps and lowers, and 8:55 p.m. for uppers and seniors on weekdays. On weekends, visitations extend from the beginning of duty hours to five minutes before check-in. Students may still visit one another in common spaces, from 9:50 a.m. to check-in, without permission.

Additionally, the new policy bans overnight visits between “students from different dormitories, residents or affiliates.” Relationships between “dormitory residents and/or day student affiliates” that are deemed to be “intimate, sexual, or exclusive in nature” have also been banned.

Consequences for violating the policy are similar to the previous policy; however, a new “Dean’s Warning” may be applied. “Three weeks of restrictions has historically been the most common response for first time visitation violations, but it is possible that in some cases “Dean’s Warning,” the new Community Conduct system response, could be used,” Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane said.

Dean of Students Brooks Moriarty emphasized that the timing of the vote, which occurred after most students left campus, was not intentional. “The hope was to pass the policy while school was in session last spring,” Moriarty said. “But circumstances pushed the vote later than intended and hoped.”

According to Principal William Rawson, student input from past dialogue was factored into the new policy’s creation. “Student Council worked with faculty on several proposals over the course of those years, and the student input gathered from discussions and proposals guided the development of the proposal that passed,” he said.

Cahalane elaborated that the new policy allows for day students to join the dorm community and extends the length of visitations for upperclassmen. “[The new visitations policy] gives day student affiliates some important privileges which will allow pathways for building dorm community, and extends the potential hours for visitations for uppers and seniors. We are also working to further extend the number of hours for all students,” she said.

Dean Moriarty added, “the change to the sleepover policy is a product of creating an equitable visitations policy.”

However, students quickly condemned the new policy for its ban on sleepovers, restrictions to personal freedom and unintended, subsequent backlash against LBGTQ+-identifying students, whom some believe are responsible for the changes.

“Exeter is straying away from what ‘college preparatory school’ means—to prepare us for college,” senior Ray Chen said. “As the years have gone on, I have noticed that Exeter is restricting personal independence, which does not allow us to develop skills needed for college.”

While the new policy seeks to bring more gender equality to visitations, senior Rosemary Beck, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, felt that it took an incorrect approach. “I think that the new policy, rather than levelling the playing field by making things equally better for everyone, is levelling it through making things equally worse,” she said. “I also believe it’s going to create divisions among students, both inside the dorm and out of it.”

Due to these divisions, the policy may result in the vilification of Exeter’s queer community, Beck said. “I’m worried about the misunderstanding that this new policy was, in any way, supported or wanted by the queer community on campus, which I think would make life at Exeter more difficult for myself and other LGBTQ+ people here,” she continued.

Senior Justin Li, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, echoed Beck’s sentiments and advocated for a different V’s policy, which would allow any student to visit another after mid-morning and until 8 p.m. This policy, Li said, would be accompanied by improved sexual education “especially concerning protection and consent.”

Another facet of the policy banning sleepovers for students other than dormitory affiliates may not be as inclusive as intended, lower Kiesse Nanor said. “I’m the only black lower in my dorm and I find it mentally draining to constantly be surrounded by people who don’t have the same experiences with race that I do,” she said. “When I had sleepovers with black friends, I felt at home. We could talk about race, hair, cultural identity, and I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself.”

Concerning the prohibition of intra-dorm relationships, lower Lekha Masoudi criticized the policy’s directive that “no activity in any dormitory space should feel exclusive.” Masoudi felt that the explanation lacks transparency, saying, “I don’t see how [intra-dorm relationships] would foster a culture of exclusion when it’s not as if everyone in the dorm will be dating each other. I think that they need to be more straightforward about the intention behind this.”

Day students also share differing opinions about the policy. For some, daily life on campus will change substantially. “I know a lot of other day students as well who use their friends’ rooms to store stuff during the day, to take a nap or to change, all of which generally occur while the boarder isn’t there,” Beck said.

Similarly, senior and day student Emily Kelleher noted that her day student peers are upset about the change. “For example, I have a friend on the softball team that uses other’s dorm to change every day after practice,” she said. “She wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.”

Several students have taken action in response to the new policy. Among them are uppers Avery Napier and Katie Reid, who sent an anonymous survey to students asking about their reactions. “This policy applies to one student as much as any other. I just thought that no one was taking action yet and I needed to take a step in order for the administration to know what we think,” Napier said.

Student Council, which worked extensively on the V’s policy in the past, has not yet decided where they will go with the new policy. “The work of Council is governed by the feedback of the students,” StuCo President Ayush Noori said, “so we will indubitably listen to those who are interested in pursuing the V’s Policy and continue that discussion.”

To that end, Student Council has charted the history of the visitations policy to discuss in their next meeting. The Executive Board has documented the electronic record of Council and Dean’s Council minutes, emails and Exonian archives since 2013, according to an email sent out by the board.

Despite student concerns, English Instructor and Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) advisor Alex Myers concluded that as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, he imagines an Academy where rules, policies, standards and expectations work for all students. Under the new policy, Myers believes that this vision of the school is maintained; “nobody’s presence is sexualized or de-sexualized, made hyper-visible or rendered invisible.”