Visitations Policy Reform Proposal

By: Meishu Han, Minseo Kim, Lucy Previn, Safira Schiowitz, Andrew Yuan

Alongside several COVID-19 restrictions on campus lifted as of September 27, students are now free to socialize in personal and common spaces in dormitories. Because of this, discussions about revising the Visitations Policy have been renewed.

On September 30, the Student Council Executive Board shared the fifth draft of Visitations policies with Student Council members in an all-Council email and requested representatives to facilitate conversations with the student body. As of October 12, all dorm representatives have shared and discussed the policy reform with their dorms. Notable highlights from the fifth draft included closed-door visitation for seniors from January to June and a change from 90 to 45-degree open door for lowerclassmen. Uppers are allowed to prop doors open with a shoe. 

Senior and Student Council President Siona Jain explained the motivation behind recent changes to the visitation policies. “Seniors will remember the Visitations changes that occurred in the summer of 2019,” Jain said, “Previously, the policy was incredibly heteronormative, and rather than saying, ‘Ok, let’s let people of all genders into other dorms,’ the new policy closed off the dorms completely until the last 1-2 hours of the day.” 

“More and more students were getting Illegal Visitations at all hours, and I cannot stress how many Illegal Visitations took place. As a result, some students found themselves in unsafe situations during illegal Visitations, and many have expressed a worry that if they left those situations or reported feeling unsafe, they’d also receive repercussions for Illegal Visitations in the first place.” Jain continued, “While this isn’t true, our new Visitations policy hopefully mitigates the need for Illegal Visitations by creating safe spaces for students to have private conversations with their doors closed.”

“However, if students find themselves in an unsafe situation, the faculty would also always know who’s in the dorm, which creates a level of accountability for the perpetrator that doesn’t occur during illegals.” Jain continued, “Finally, there would be both faculty and proctors on duty available for immediate support.

Senior and Student Council Vice President Georgie Venci explained that the motivation for the renewed discussions surrounding the Visitations Policy is for students to have more “privileges and privacy.”

Upper and Student Council Co-Secretary Aaron Joy noted the role pandemic played in Visitations Policy changes. “Student Council is seeking to bolster social lives and respect students' independence and privacy with the new Visitations policy. The pandemic had a big dent on campus social life, and changing the Visitations is a much-needed action that will go a long way to alleviate that,” Joy said. 

In order for the policy to pass, 50 percent of Council must support it, according to Venci. Most dormitory representatives have already initiated conversations about the policy with residents.

To bring the stipulations of the Visitations policy proposal to the attention of deans, the Student Council Executive Board has held meetings with Dean of Students Russell Weatherspoon and Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane. They are collaborating on the negotiation of details.

A Student Council vote on the policy was held on Monday, October 12. It passed 82-0-18 in favor of the policy (18 people abstained because they were absent from the meeting). A date for faculty vote has not been confirmed, but the first round of voting will occur with dorm heads.

If the dormitory heads pass the policy, the Executive Board’s next step is to meet once again with the deans. “If they pass us, we can either be sent back to StuCo or we can go forward to the faculty,” Venci said. “And then we have two faculty meetings where we present our policies, answer questions, and then vote [again].”

Sexual assault and safety was a core topic of discussion for the council and Executive Board. Senior and Student Council Co-Secretary Kiesse Nanor explained the logic behind giving students more freedom with the Visitations policy reform. “Our sense is that the proposed visitations policy would be helpful in the sense that it might make it easier for victims of sexual assault to come forward and seek support,” Nanor said. “We’ve heard that many students have feared coming forward in the past about sexual assault that took place during an instance of illegal Visitations with closed doors, and so we hope that removing the “ban” on closed doors for seniors will eliminate some of this added stress.”

“Students got illegal visitations so they could have private conversations with their friends, and this creates space to do that during supervised hours for seniors,” Jain said,
“Additionally, if a student was in an unsafe situation during Visitations hours with closed doors (and the doors must be unlocked and can only be closed with both student’s consent), then they would hopefully feel more comfortable approaching a faculty member in the dorm.”

Nanor continued. “We also would like to emphasize that though seniors would theoretically have the option to close their doors during Visitations from January to June, this would not be a requirement, and would only take place if all parties involved consented to the door being closed. However, we will continue to have talks with EASA, faculty, and students to make sure that these concerns are addressed.”

Nanor presented next steps that the Executive Board will be taking for the Visitation policy. “We will continue to refine our policy before a meeting with dorm heads. After that meeting, we may need to come back to Council and discuss and revise the policy again before going back to dorm heads and then faculty. We would only really have one opportunity to present the policy to faculty,” Nanor said.

The discussion with faculty on the Visitations policy is yet to be scheduled. “We haven’t yet had our meeting with dorm heads to receive feedback on the policy, but we have met multiple times with Dean Cahalane and Dean Weatherspoon, who have expressed general support for the policy while offering some insight into how to improve our likelihood of faculty approval,” Nanor explained.

Students generally support the new Visitations policy, citing the increased freedoms and safety measures. Upper and elections committee co-head Tucker Gibbs expressed his support for the revised Visitation policies. “I’m a fan of the newest Visitations policies. It’s a lot less intrusive than the current policies when it comes to door angles,” he said, “You have the ability to spend more time with friends in places that are comfortable.”

Upper and Student Life Committee co-head Grace Puchalski agreed. “I personally support the new Visitations policy we are pushing because I think it is a privilege that students deserve,” she said. “I also believe the academy should stick to their value of ‘trust until trust is broken’ and trust us with these new Visitations.”

Upper and Budget Committee co-head Charlie Holtz provided his take on the current state of the Visitations policy reform.“Although I voted in favor of the Visitations amendment proposed by the Student Council executive board, I felt it was incomplete and almost premature to have passed it as quickly as we did.” Holtz said. “I think StuCo, as a unified organization, should have made all necessary changes, however small, like specifics on door-knocking policies. I would also like to have done more research and collaboration work with Andover regarding the impact of the policy on sexual assault cases on their campus in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. It's important that this policy be not only more trusting of students, but it also must maintain their safety.” 

Upper and fellow Budget Committee co-head Val Whitten noted the perspectives of students on campus. “I have talked about the policy with my friends who aren't in StuCo. A lot of the belief is just like ‘We have been trying to reform Visitations for years and nothing's happened,’” Whitten said. “But I genuinely do see more progress than I've seen in the past two years.”

Upper and class representative Tony Cai noted the significance of close door policies for seniors. “I have heard from uppers about how popular a closed-door policy for seniors is, since we will be seniors soon. Under the proposed changes, we get to enjoy more privacy and adjust to college life’s complete close-door policies,” he said. 

Lower and day student representative Advay Nomula commented on day students’ reactions to the recent policy changes. “There wasn’t any particular concern among day students I’ve talked to, but a few are confused about the difference between a 45 and a 90-degree open door,” he said, “I was not involved in drafting the policies or the physical writing of the policies. We provided feedback in the all-council meetings.”

Senior and Merrill Hall dorm representative Sophie Fernandez talked about her dorm’s views of the policy. “I sent out a Google form for it to our dorm, and everyone who replied to the Google form said that they were in favor of it,” Fernandez said. 

Senior and Main Street Hall dorm representative Kosi Onwuamaegbu reflected on his dorm’s thoughts. “Everybody was in support of the policy,” Onwuamaegbu said. “Some students asked what qualifies as a shoe, but other than that, people didn’t have any confusion over it.”

With the Student Council passing the new Visitations policies, students are looking forward to the faculty votes. Fernandez commented on the potential of the policy to build trust between different parts of the Exeter community. “I particularly feel like ever since our prep year, there's kind of been [a loss of] trust. I don't know if it's because of COVID or anything, but I definitely feel like there's a battle between the administration and students and faculty,” Fernandez said. “I think this would be a really good time and policy that would allow there to become more trust between the students, administration and faculty.”