Council rejects parietals extension
Jason McFarley
News Editor
While the Campus Life Council on Monday approved a measure proposing an extension in University parietal hours, on-campus students shouldn't expect a change in late-night visiting hours with members of the opposite sex.
That's because although CLC members passed a resolution clause calling for parietals to end an hour earlier in the morning than now, a second clause that would extend them an hour later in the evening fell one vote short of passage.
Another resolution that proposes uniform 12:30 a.m. parietal hours on Sundays in all residence halls was also defeated.
"This is simply a request to allow members of the opposite sex to have more hours each day to interact with each other in the privacy of their own rooms," said Seth Whetzel, who served on the Student Senate committee that drafted the resolution which would extend parietals to 1 a.m. on weeknights and end them at 9 a.m. every day.
The resolution's introduction to the CLC came after its passage in the senate and a senate survey that polled students' opinions on changing the longstanding hours.
Of 3,038 survey respondents, 2,429 —about 80 percent — said they were in favor of extending parietals past midnight during the week. Another 2,378, some 78 percent, responded that they were in favor of ending parietals before 10 a.m. each morning.
"When 80 percent of students make it perfectly clear that the extension of parietals is in their best interest, I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt," Whetzel said.
Many agreed that ending parietals at 9 a.m. every day was a good idea.
"It just makes sense," said Sister Pat Thomas, Walsh Hall rectress. "Students are up, they're going to class, they're meeting with each other."
The CLC voted 13-3 to end the hours at 9 a.m. Members will forward the change to the Office Student Affairs for consideration. Debate over extending parietals in the other direction divided the council along student-staff lines.
Members voted 10-6 to push parietals to 1 a.m, but the vote was one short of the two-thirds majority required for passage.
Luciana Reali, who also helped pass the resolution in the senate, said the proposal allows for students to work together later at night and encourages an integration between students' academic and social lives in residence halls.
But rectors and administrators argued that parietals serve an important purpose in halls. Parietals affect not only students but hall staff as well, according to Brother Jerome Meyer, Knott Hall rector.
"There's a lot involved in parietals that people who are in favor of extending them don't realize," Meyer said. "It's my impression of parietals after midnight that it's not studying. Several rectors expressed similar concerns that moving parietals to 1 a.m. would cut into students' quiet time in dorms.
"The truth of the matter is the majority of us don't go to bed at midnight," said senior Amy Szestak. "Pushing [parietals] back to 1 a.m. wouldn't have a drastic effect on quiet hours."
"If you want quiet hours, tell the hall staff to enforce them," senior Tony Wagner said.
"There is a pervading sense that administrators don't allow students to think for themselves," Whetzel said. "If this resolution gets shot down, don't pat me on the head, say I did a good job but tell me that daddy knows best. Please spare me that."
When members voted down the recommendation to extend parietals to 1 a.m., Whetzel immediately introduced an alternate resolution.
The resolution called for an extension of parietal hours to 12:30 a.m. only on Sundays and sprang from some dorms' practice of moving the hours to then.
In a count that mirrored an earlier vote, the council voted 10-6 in favor of the resolution, defeating it, as it failed to gain a two-thirds majority.
All News Stories for Tuesday, April 24, 2001
