Jillian Beaudry

Stacey Barchenger

Students are old enough to make decisions about their bedtimes.

Amid all of the thought-provoking questions at the ASLC primary debates on Monday, there was only one surprising answer. The presidential candidates all said the school policy they most wanted to change was our restrictive visiting hours.

This may be because all of the candidates are or were Resident Advisers, as they said they have felt guilty about asking students to return to their respective residence halls and rooms at 10 on a Thursday night.

“We are adults; we can handle when we go over to the opposite sex’s (room),” junior Geoff Young said.

Junior Chris Schuldt explained when students are hanging out together at night watching movies in their rooms, they are building community, not causing trouble; they should have the freedom to do so.

Junior Wesley Mitchell agreed with the other two, but added he would like to change the Greek Life GPA standard as well. This answer was not surprising.

Compared to George Fox University, Linfield has it easy.

According to the nearby college’s student  handbook “visitation hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Monday throughThursday, 2 to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday. No person is allowed on the wing/floor, hallways or stairwells of a living area of the opposite sex except during open-house visitation hours. The door to the student’s room must be completely open at all times when visitors of the opposite sex are present.”

We have all heard the rumors that in addition to this, all feet have to be on the floor if members of the opposite sex are present in one’s room.

More of the general surprise may stem from the fact that Linfield RAs often do not enforce the visitation hours rule. This is probably because it seems a bit old-fashioned. Not many students go to bed at 10 p.m.

After classes all morning and studying all evening, most students can only find time to hang out with friends after 10 p.m. We all certainly deserve to hang out with our peers to relieve some of our academic stress.

Although our policy could be much more strict like George Fox’s, the visiting hours should be removed or dramatically extended.

The main problem is students bothering roommates or neighbors with late-night noise. However, at any time, one can knock on a door and politely ask the noisy students to quiet down. This would build an even better community as students would actually be communicating with each other rather than going through a third person.

Students can always move late-night study sessions into common areas, right? No. The library closes at 1 a.m. and most of the residence halls do not have adequate work space in common areas with desks and white boards. Often, a student’s room is the only place on campus where they can gather for study sessions and movie nights. Kicking them out at 10 p.m. leaves them with nowhere to go. They will not get their test questions answered until the next morning right before the test, or they may begin to feel like a recluse.

Students are old enough to quiet down when a neighbor or roommate asks. Get rid of visiting hours so students can continue to build community by just hanging out and helping each other with studies.