I just got back from a floor meeting at my “residence hall” where we were informed of the new visitation policy, or should I say anti-visitation policy.
Apparently, UK campus police thought this was necessary due to the elevated terror alert.
Listen to this idiotic, asinine, moronic, rant-worthy piece of shit policy:
Only immediate family and people with a valid UK ID may gain access to residence halls, beginning at 7 AM tomorrow.
All residents must show ID upon entering the building.
Residents without ID must play “20 Questions” with their personal information until the desk clerk is satisfied they are who they say they are.
Now, if this were say, a nuclear reactor, or a weapons depot, or an air traffic control center, I could understand it. However, it’s a FUCKING DORM! Al-Qaeda doesn’t give a shit about blowing up a bunch of college students at the University of Kentucky, unless Osama’s a Duke fan or something. I somehow doubt that he’s chilling in a cave somewhere saying, “If UK students can get themselves and their friends into dorms without jumping through more hoops than Shamu at Sea World, then I still have work to do.”
Go ahead, tell me all about how this is part of “Homeland Security” and how 9-11 changed everything, and that I’m just going to have to deal with this because that’s how the world is. Meanwhile, I’ll be planning for the protest on the University President’s front lawn tomorrow night.
(Note: UK refers to the University of Kentucky, located in “apparent terrorist hotbed” Lexington, Kentucky.)
Do you mean that you can’t have non-UK-student-or-family visitors, or no visitors at all?
Granted, my UK dorm days are nigh on a decade ago, but they’ve always “required” ID for residents to get into the dorm, they just tend to be lax about it sometimes. At least they were in Boyd-Patt, where I lived, since the staff and RAs knew everybody who lived there. They were also lax in Blanding Tower, since resistance was futile. (I certainly spent many a weekend night sneaking in over there.)
Doc, I was kinda hoping you would find this thread. The policy, as it was explained to me, is that non-UK-student-or-family visitors are forbidden under the new policy. Which is ridiculous, because as I pointed out to some friends, our enemies are not exactly masters of disguise, and if they are converting college students, they deserve to win.
You are right about how soft the policy enforcement has been in the past, although most visitors did have to sign in for the past few months. The point I’m making is, this only hurts the students, as now they can’t get their SOs in if they go to different schools (Louisville, Transy, etc.) and my high school buddies can’t come visit my dorm when they drive up from Western. The timing is especially bad, since they called a Board of Trustees meeting during Spring Break to raise tuition while everyone was out of town.
No one knows where terrorists might strike. If the UK did nothing and the dorm was blown up, people would be asking “Why didn’t you do something to protect them”?
Of course, it is not likely that terrorists would want to wrangle with a Wildcat, but I don’t find their rules unreasonable under the circumstances.
But then what do you expect? The decision makers probably went to school at a time where men’s and women’s dorms were separate and you couldn’t get any further than the front lobby.
well, from my experience at UPenn, i’d have to say that those policies are pretty strandard. I’m actually surprised that it’s a new policy, given that the dorms have been there for a while, right?
it might have been motivated by the recent terrorism scare, but it’s generally, in my experience, a good policy all around.
sure, it can be a hassle at times, especially if you forgot your ID, are trying to get a non-resident to your room for a hookup, etc, but it also goes a long way towards preventing other sorts of mischief that the school might find itself liable for.
I’d imagine it might also make the parents of the residents (who, for the most part, are those who pay the rent) fell more comfortable about sending their children to live away from home for what is probably the first time.
I’m quite certain my university is more likely to be a terrorist target than the UofK. I go to USC, and a lot of the powerful people in the middle east (ex: Saudis) send their kids here. Many ppl holding gov’t positions in those countries (who are often hated by the poor of same countries) have USC degrees. Yet there is no limit on who can visit us.
What a stupid policy! Anyone you escort in should be allowed.
Stonebow, I’m complaining a lot about this for several reasons. First, there was no discussion with the students before they announced this. Second, we’ve been pushing to get 24-hour visitation for months, and instead they decide to go in the opposite direction. Third, the administration has been screwing the students already this week, as I mentioned above.
Doc, I didn’t know you were in Boyd-Patterson when you were here. I’m in Holmes right now, and I hope to be moving out next year, because this place sucks, but I’ve already ranted on that earlier.
Zoe, I realize that the University ostensibly has a responsibility to protect us, but we’re talking about a school that only installed sprinklers in the dorms after state law made them mandatory.
This is an outrageous policy. I can understand making everyone who is not a student register and show ID, and making said student responsible for that guest, but to outright BAN these people from the buildings? That is ridiculous.
Oh boo frickin hoo. Move off campus and set yourself up a real rockin’ crib. Then invite whoever you want, whenever you want.
Re: the Minger (Ky. Dorm Sprinkler) law. I’m more than a little familiar with this situation. Nationwide, unsprinkled dorms are not uncommon. Not that dorms shouldn’t be sprinkled. But Ky was not unique in not requiring dorms to be sprinkled.
Also, if and when you do move off campus to an apartment complex or a converted old house, do you think it’ll be sprinkled?
Tuition hikes absolutely suck, though. If our General Assembly had passed a more responsible budget the Universities may not have been put in such dire financial straits.
One more thing to consider. Retrofitting dorms with sprinkler systems isn’t free. It’s not even cheap. Is it possible that there could be some relationship between the fire sprinkler mandate and the tuition hike?
Nah. I’m sure the Board of Trustees did it just to be mean.
Frankd6, I’m going to assume the quad-post was an accident. That said, feel free to help yourself to a big helping of shut the fuck up.
I’m not even suggesting that the Board of Trustees did this “to be mean.” I’m suggesting that they raised tuition during Spring Break because they knew if they tried it when students were on campus, they would have to deal with pissed-off students at the meeting. They called this “special emergency meeting” during Spring Break with the express intent of raising tuition at a time when students wouldn’t be able to ask questions and raise concerns. It’s underhanded and ethically questionable, but I’m not going to be a whiny SOB and suggest that they did it to “be mean.”
As for the tuition hike being related to sprinkler installation, no. Those expenses would be covered by an increase in the housing fee, since tuition pays for classes and not the dorms.
I’m also more than familiar with the Minger Act, since I used to live 15 minutes from Murray State’s campus.
And as for your “sage advice” about moving off campus, here’s a little something I want you to do: Copy this down, and then reverse the order of the letters.
EMETIB
Got that? Good. Now ask yourself a question: Why would someone try to find a “rockin’ crib” at this point in the semester, knowing they will get virtually no refund of the housing fee, plus the hassle of packing and moving?
And no, I don’t expect an apartment to have sprinklers, dumbass, but I do expect them in a dormitory because the building is designed to hold a large number of people, and is constructed by a university that claims to take responsibility for our safety and well-being while we live there.
After saying all that, you are right that the General Assembly blows. They are a bunch of goat-blowing cumstains who could be replaced with chimpanzees tomorrow without a decrease in service.
Yep, I was a Patt Rat, 1994-1996. [Leans back in rocking chair]'Course, back in those days, Boyd and Patterson were two separate dorms. They were still connected by the walkway, though. We had the cooler lobby, but they had the computer lab. We had to spend time in the lobby, because the rooms weren’t air conditioned yet. And we liked it! We liked it just fine!
(I was live-in manager over at the Gaines Center for the year after that.)
Yeah, if you find yourself living in the Holmes Correctional Facility, the best thing to do is to start planning your move out. It isn’t quite the hole that Haggin is (at least it wasn’t when I was around), but a hole nonetheless.
Oh, and there’s a pretty obvious way around this new restriction–suddenly develop a big ol’ immediate family. After all, aren’t we all brothers? (Or sisters, as the case may be.)
**Doc]/b], I had that exact idea about 90 minutes ago. Sadly, my status as an almost painfully single guy means that I probably will not have to introduce any “sisters” to the night desk clerks at this God-forsaken hellhole I live in.
And Frank, in reading over my last post, I may have been a tad harsh, but the basic attitude and intent of the post remains the same. I think you were being a dick with that post.
We technically have a rule like that here at VU–well, actually, visitors can sign in. However, members of the opposite sex aren’t supposed to spend the night (it’s a religiously affiliated college). This has the effect of making students have sex in the strangest places, like the Alumni Hall chapel. It does NOT make the students any less promiscuous.
That being said, almost no one gets written up for it, so long as they’re courteous about things, aren’t freakin’ obvious, and don’t piss off their roommates. I’ve had my boyfriend over here a couple times, and I haven’t been hassled.
I hate to say it, but odds are the RAs/Desk Attendants will enforce this for maybe two weeks before they give up. I do think it’s shitty that you can’t even sign people in, though. I mean, I can understand not wanting to let random people into the building, but having to be signed in by a UK student would (more than likely) mean the visitor wasn’t going to commit some horrible crime.
Jeez, boy, just let your friends call, then go downstairs and open one of the other entrances. Our dorm had like 10 doors, plus half a dozen floor level windows accessable to whoever wanted in. And write a letter to the school paper proposing that everyone should let random strangers into the dorm just to make a mockery of the new rules!
I lived in Holmes for four years. I enjoyed a free single room for several semesters because, for some odd reason, I had a talent for scaring off roommates.
Sorry, babe, but that won’t work in the UK dorms. The only doors that don’t set off the fire alarms are right at the front desk, and the windows in the South Campus dorms don’t open. The North Campus dorms have shrubbery planted against the walls and under the windows to foil such attempts. Trust me, we thoroughly discussed ways of getting contraband persons in and out of the dorms when we lived there.
I thought the old policy of only allowing you to check in two guests at a time and making opposite sex guests leave at midnight (2 on the weekends) was stupid, but this shit is just beyond assinine. I’m tempted to drive home and bitchslap Lee Todd right now.
Snooooopy, I had a roomie my freshman year who tried that one on me. We still refer to her as the troll.
