Dorms Offer Additional Visitation Hours to Visitations
To compensate for the new visitations (V’s) policy’s more restrictive hours, all dormitories are seeking to accommodate four extra hours of visitations per week, some by appointing additional dorm affiliates, others by increasing the duty hours of its current faculty residents.
The Academy adopted a new V’s policy earlier this year, limiting all inter-dorm visits regardless of gender to specified evening hours while faculty are on duty.
Dean of Students Brooks Moriarty explained that the four-hour weekly extension of visitation hours was proposed to offset this restrictive reform — “a big shift for the school.”
The administration is still in the process of hiring more dorm affiliates. They began increasing dormitory staffing last year to promote “more face-to-face time with students,” and are now continuing this effort to support the extra duty hours, according to Moriarty.
Not every dorm will be receiving an affiliate, however; the Academy is prioritizing dorms whose faculty residents have already been sustaining more burdensome duty hours. Dorm heads received a handout earlier this term mandating a minimum of 12 duty sessions in a four-week period for each faculty resident in a house, between six and seven sessions for each resident in “two resident” dorms and “medium brick” dorms, and six sessions for each resident in a “large brick” dorm.
Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane admitted the potential shortcomings of this policy. “Do I think this is a perfect measure? No, I don’t,” she said. “However, it is the measure we are working with right now.”
Faculty residents who do not currently meet their respective minimums will take on the four extra visitation duty hours themselves, without the help of an additional affiliate. For example, Webster’s staff are offering to serve extended hours as their current count is less than that of similar dorms, according to dorm head Alex Myers said.
Kirtland House, meanwhile, with six student residents and four affiliates, will be assigned an additional affiliate next week, according to dorm head Courtney Marshall. “Once she is in place, we’ll be able to have even more extended visitation offerings,” Marshall said.
In Langdell Hall, which has 40 students and 6 affiliates, extra hours are assigned on a rotation. “The way we do extended V’s is we rotate and whoever’s on duty [on] Saturday offers 4 extra hours of visitations during the week,” English Instructor and dorm head Patricia Burke said.
Whether a dorm is granted a new affiliate or just assigns extra duty hours to a current resident, faculty hope that increased interaction between adults and students will benefit the Exeter community. “I think it’s nice for students to know that adults are accessible even if we’re not sitting in the common room—that we are here if you have a question or a problem or you just want to talk,” Burke said.
Yet, despite extended visitations, community members are still debating changes in the new V’s policy. Modern Languages Instructor and Dow House dorm head Amadou Talla questioned the efficacy of the reforms, saying, “I am not sure the whole policy will necessarily promote healthier relationships. We will have to try it out and see.”
He echoed Burke’s belief, however, that the addition of new faculty within the dorm would create a stronger and more diverse dorm environment. “This new affiliate brings a different set of experiences and perspectives that the kids in the dorm and the Day Students can benefit from,” he said.
Science Instructor Michael McLaughlin, meanwhile, believes that students should be permitted to get visitations beyond faculty duty hours. “I would suggest open visitations between 10 a.m. and check-in, where students sign in and out using a smartphone app,” he said. “I would not require a faculty presence in the building.” He acknowledged, however, that the practicality of such a policy would require “consultations with our in-house counsel and the administrative staff responsible for contracting our liability insurance.”
Marshall questioned if there may be other spaces on campus that are more appropriate for students to convene in. “I didn’t grow up in a culture where people invited guests into their bedrooms; guests met in living rooms, kitchen, etc,” she said.
The Academy will assess the impact of distributing new faculty affiliates among dorms before deciding on a permanent, long-term arrangement that allows students to connect with their peers in residential spaces within the guidelines of the new V’s policy.