An eagle's eye on parietals
Letter to the Editor
It's a little unusual that I am writing to The Observer since I have no real affiliation with Notre Dame, but on a recent trip to your University, I was bothered enough by one of the school's policies to compose this letter. My complaint has to do with a term that is familiar to everyone at Notre Dame and which became familiar to me during my visit ... "Parietals." I imagine that you regularly publish articles and receive incensed polemics concerning this controversial issue, but if you're interested in an outsider's opinion, here's mine: The rules governing visits from the opposite sex at Notre Dame create an unfriendly atmosphere for your guests.
Not long ago, I flew to South Bend to watch a friend star in a musical. For the purposes of this letter, it is important to note that I am a boy and she is a girl (Unseemly, I know). Because she was busy preparing for her play throughout most of the weekend, we were left without a great deal of time to chat. At night, after everything settled down, we should have had a chance to remedy that, but unfortunately for us parietals is the most strictly enforced policy at Notre Dame. At 2 a.m. I was unhappy to learn that I had to leave her room. Not surprisingly, the small 24 hour space provided for such occasions was already full. That left us without any good place to go and we spent the rest of the night walking around (it was a cold night) looking for somewhere to have a conversation.
I can appreciate genuine concerns for safety; certainly anyone who has no business being in a girls' dormitory at night should not be allowed in. Parietals are less about safety, however, than an outdated sense of propriety which is simply not in keeping with the times.
To sum up: Regardless of why parietals are considered necessary, parietal policy made me feel less welcome at Notre Dame than I have at any other university.
Mike Davin
Boston College
sophomore
February 21, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, February 22, 2001
