On Jan. 17, Women’s Quad resident mentors sent out an email announcing the Quad’s official visitation policy change. At the start of fall semester, the visitation policy was the standard Plan B, allowing male guests to stay until 2 a.m. However, as of this week a vote by Women’s Quad residents has changed the policy to Plan C.
“Starting now we are officially on Plan C. Basically, male guests are allowed to stay the night Friday nights and Saturday nights as long as they are signed in,” the email read.
The fall semester saw drama within the Women’s Quad communities regarding the original Plan B visitation policy. The conflict began when flyers circulated around the halls that listed reasons why some residents thought the policy was unfair or discriminatory.
In an effort to calm the uproar and let the concerned residents express their feelings in a safe environment, the hall government of Women’s Quad held a town hall-style forum to address the issue during fall semester.
First-year history student Madison Santmyer, who serves as Women's Quad president, felt that the meeting was productive.
“I think the meeting was really effective. We heard a lot of voices from all around Women’s Quad. Hopefully with those voices comes change,” Santmyer said at the time of the meeting.
Some students, such as first-year athletic training student Marissa Sciabarra, were not pleased by the hall government’s public meeting.
“It was a waste of our time,” Sciabarra said. “My issue is we could have gone to the meeting and they could have said it wasn’t going to change then we would have just left.” Now, four months later, the voice of the residents of Women’s Quad who disliked the original policy has been heard. Now that the drama has ended and the visitation policy has been changed in favor of the concerned residents, is everyone happy?
First-year psychology student Eileen Durkin saw the change as a reasonable compromise.
"I think it’s fine that it changed. I don't care either way,” Durkin said. “I'm okay with it because guys still can't stay during the week which would be the problem if girls are running around with guys and I'm trying to study."
The fear of being disturbed or feeling uncomfortable was a common issue brought up by residents who favored the consistence of Plan B. Women’s Quad is, after all, an all women’s community, which is often the characteristic that attracts many of its residents, such as first-year chemical engineering student Jacqueline Phillips and first-year elementary education student Meri Funk.
“It's nice to have one place on campus where we don't have guys walking around the halls all the time," Phillips said.
"Your decisions are your decisions; if that's what you want to do then go ahead. Like, I'm here for school. What are you here for?” Funk said in regards to her fellow residents' decisions.
Some girls, such as first-year psychology student Emily Pierce, who do not plan to have boys spend the night with them, agree that when it came time to vote for a policy change they wanted to fight for their right to chose. This was a big issue during the fall semester’s town hall meeting.
“You don't have to actually do something to acknowledge other people's right to do the thing,” Pierce said.