College life is full of deadlines — papers, projects and homework assignments are a fact of life for most students. But those living on campus must deal with another one — the visitation curfew.

The University visitation rule mandates that visitors must vacate student rooms by 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and by 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

While the IRC permits same-sex sleepovers with the roommate’s agreement, any member of the opposite sex must leave. There has been opposition to this rule in the past, and the IRC has been looking into it again recently; but so far, nothing has changed.

According to Tom Stafford, vice chancellor of student affairs, some version of the visitation rule has been in effect since before he came to N.C. State in 1971.

Although visitation issues predate her time at NCSU, Director of University Housing Susan Grant said it is an attempt to protect students.

“In its time, it was meant, I believe, to provide privacy for students and help regulate residence hall student behavior.” Grant said.

Joe Sevits, a junior in computer science, said he holds the same view.

“As far as I understand, it is to keep a more peaceful environment for those living in the resident halls,” he said.

Sevits is a member of the Student Senate, and the legislative body’s IRC liaison.

He said he worked on IRC’s Emerging Issues Committee last year, and the visitation policy was one of their top priorities. They did surveys of student opinion and looked into the fairness of the policy.

One of the things taken into account was the inability of the rule to cover homosexual relationships.

“With times being the way they are and the culture changing, and people being more accepting, you could say it’s a little outdated,” Cody Williams, a senior in agricultural business management and the president of the IRC, said.

No action was ever taken, however, because of tie-ups at the end of the semester. Williams explained that it was not so easy to get the policy changed.

“It’s not really a Housing policy, it’s a Board of Trustees policy,” Williams said. “It’s not something Housing can just change.”

While Williams said he feels it would make more sense for Housing to control visitation, since they are closer to the residents and their interests, he understands it is a policy the Board of Trustees control.

To change it would take more than an appeal to Housing, the IRC would have to take it before the board itself. The last time the IRC took the visitation policy to the board was more than four years ago, and only one member voted in favor of changing it.

“Even the student body president opposed it,” Williams said.

Grant reaffirmed the Board’s importance in the process.

“It’s the only Housing policy that needs the approval of the Board of Trustees before it can be modified,” Grant said.

The IRC considered taking it to the board again last year, but it never did.

While some students support the policy, others said they are unsure.

Eric Ellis, a sophomore in history education, resides in Lee Hall. He said he has mixed feelings about the policy.

“The reason I’m against it is we are in college, we should be able to do whatever we want,” he said. “But also I’m for the policy, because if there was no policy in place there would always be people who would abuse the situation.”

Maggie White, a freshman in First Year College and a resident of Metcalf Hall, said she agrees the policy is helpful in awkward situations, but she believes it should be something decided on a more personal level.

“The curfew should just be a roommate agreement you do with your RA’s at the beginning of the semester,” White said. “It’s still nice to have so you can use it as an excuse for kicking someone out.”

Many students agree they don’t have a problem with the way the enforcement of the rule is carried out. White said she feels it is an “if-I-don’t-see-it-then-I-don’t-know-about-it” kind of thing.

Sevits said he agrees it is inconsistently enforced.

“It’s all relative to the RA that you have,” he said. “I don’t know of anyone who actually got wrote up for something like that unless they’ve had a complaint alongside that.”

Williams explained that while students will see no changes in the immediate future, if any changes were to take effect they would be gradual.

“It would be more of a modification,” he said. “We would try to do it in steps, where certain halls would start with 24-hour visitation, some of the upper class halls, and we would monitor that for a semester and report back.”

Sevits insisted residents voicing their concerns are important in implementing any change, and student support is mandatory in seeing those changes through.

Williams said he agreed.

“If the IRC goes to the Board of Trustees to make a presentation and it doesn’t have a lot of student support, then they’re not going to look as highly on it,” Williams said. “The students definitely need to let their voice be heard and show they support this.”