After deliberation by Syme and Bowen residence councils, residents will be allowed to accept guests 24 hours a day in those dorms, effective Fall 2013.
Five residence halls were added to the 24-hour list as of Fall 2012, and Syme and Bowen have continued that trend, making 75 percent of residence halls at N.C. State accessible by visitors 24 hours a day.
The University Housing website states limited-visitation residence halls are allowed visitors from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday to Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday to Saturday. Residents of these halls may permit a visitor of the same sex to remain in the hall as an overnight guest pending roommate approval.
The expansion of 24-hour visitation came after a survey conducted by the InterResidence Council stating 90 percent of residences without 24-hour visitation would approve; 73 percent of the respondents said visitation hours were a factor in deciding what dorm to live in.
Brad Templeman, freshman in computer engineering, said the 24-hour visitation policy had an impact on where he decided to live this academic year, stating he liked giving visitors a place to “crash” at his dorm in Carroll Hall.
Last academic year, Carroll did not allow 24-hour visitation, but Templeton said his resident advisor did not enforce the policy.
“He never seemed to care about it,” Templeman said. “It was never stressed.”
Katelyn Shuping, a member of Bowen Hall Council and unior in criminology, attributed the change to a “bigger interest [in] and a lot of people [wanting] 24-hour visitation.”
Emmaline Smith, resident of Lee Hall and freshman in human biology, said she thinks restricting visitation hours is pointless, but reasonable for the WISE residence program, which she belongs to.
Smith said her roommate often runs into problems with visitation restrictions, which are enforced in Lee, but has not suffered any penalty. Smith said she doesn’t think 24 hour visitation would change things drastically.
“It wouldn’t make a big difference, just more people would probably [have late visitors],” Smith said.
Jim Pappenhagen, associate director of University Housing, said the restrictions don’t make a noticeable difference in residents’ lives and haven’t caused many conflicts. He hasn’t received any move-out requests due to the change in policy.
With a trend toward 24-hour visitation on all residence halls and a lack of protest, the 25 percent of halls that restrict visiting hours could see similar changes in the future.
