An estimated 300 students spent all or part of the pleasant night of April 30 camped out on the South Quad. They were protesting the adminis- tration’s opposition to extending late-night visiting hours or parietals.
Students organized the protest after the Campus Life Council, composed of student representatives, rectors and a representative from student affairs, approved a resolution to allow visitors of the opposite sex to be in dorm rooms an hour earlier in the morning. But the group narrowly defeated a proposal to extend visiting hours by an hour at night on weekdays.
Currently parietals, the hours when members of the opposite sex are permitted in individual dorm rooms, run from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. The residence halls all have lounges where people can meet 24 hours a day.
The Campus Life Council was created in 1977 as a forum for students, faculty and administrative personnel to discuss students affairs matters and make recommendations to the vice president for student affairs. On the measure that failed, by one vote, the votes against all came from the rectors and the assistant vice president for student affairs.
A representative of Vice President for Student Affairs Mark Poorman, CSC, ’80M.Div., said the student affairs staff will discuss the resolution that passed before taking any action.
Students who organized the protest against the defeat of later night hours said they felt the administration was ignoring their opinion. But the University didn’t entirely ignore the protest. The landscaping department had planned to run the sprinklers for the first time that night but postponed the watering so as not to dampen the demonstration.