New ODU Guest Policy and Procedures

To:  The Office of Housing and Residence Life

The purpose of this petition is to address the new Housing and Residence Life "guest registration policy and procedure for all residential communities." We ask that this policy be revoked due to many factors including those listed:

Those living in campus housing were not notified of this policy before signing up for and paying for the 2009 - 2010 year. If people had known of the policy it is foreseeable that many individuals would not have opted to live in residential communities.

As adults living in campus housing (including those living in a supposed "commuter" or "independent living" situation) this policy seems unnecessarily restricting. It takes away any opportunity to be spontaneous and it requires a lot of planning by many parties on what should be a simple and private matter.

This policy is questionable in that the housing office could have a record of everyone a person has had spend the night in their apartment or dorm. This would be a major breach of privacy.

The topic of drunk driving is possibly the most serious implication of this guest policy. There are many people who have parties or get-togethers in their campus apartments that involve alcohol. This policy discourages residents from having their guest(s) stay the night if they have had too much to drink. These individuals could either walk home late at night inebriated, or attempt to drive home under the influence - all due to this policy.

While the issues of safety, security, and respect for room-mates are important, the issues of autonomy, privacy, and safety for persons are equally so.

We as students, family of students, and friends of students believe this policy to be unjust and unsafe to those living in residential communities and ask that the policy be revoked immediately.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The New ODU Guest Policy and Procedures Petition to The Office of Housing and Residence Life was created by and written by Michelle Crewe (mcrew002@odu.edu).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.