Many questions were directed towards Cat Geletka, director of residence life, at last week’s Student Speak-Up, including worries about problems in halls, overcrowding in dorms and 24/7 visitation rights.

An impressive amount of students came out to question and listen to what faculty members had to say in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center last Tuesday for Student Speak-Up. Students had the opportunity to have open communication with the heads of the main departments and administrative offices on campus and get anything that was bothering them off their chests.

Mark Horton, a sophomore and resident of Clayton Hall’s third floor, voiced concern about problems in the bathrooms. He said that the stall doors would not shut and the shower curtains were ripped. Geletka said it was the first time she had heard about it and that she would look into it. Rick Ewing, vice president of facilities management, agreed.

“We can’t fix the problem if we don’t know about it,” Ewing said.

Geletka later said that she had the male RAs look into the problem the day after Student Speak-Up and received confirmation that new shower curtains were needed.

While Student Speak-Up helped Horton get results rather quickly for Clayton’s third floor, other questions could not be expected to be so easily fixed.

Frank Suglio, a senior, asked about lowering the student age limit for moving off campus.

“I’ve heard that there is overcrowding in the dorms,” Suglio said. “So why can’t the university be more lenient about the age limit?” Suglio missed the 22-year-old cut off by one week, so he technically has to live on campus. He gets around this by paying for a dorm room, but living in a house off campus anyway.

Geletka responded by saying that overcrowding cannot be predicted and that while Residence Life is exploring possibilities, they do not want to reveal all of the changes that are being discussed so as not to cause anxiety among the student body before knowing exactly what will be done.

“This is certainly an obvious and important issue to us, but it’s not a crisis,” Geletka said in an e-mail after Student Speak-Up. “It’s an opportunity to think smarter, not harder. The amount of students that we created temporary housing spaces for (16 at the onset, currently 7) does not necessitate building a new hall or dramatically changing university housing policy. It’s a process, and I encourage people to recognize and celebrate the small developments, because when you see the big picture, those are in fact big developments.”

Requests have been put in many times in the past for Kem Hall to have card access to the door on the opposite side of the building. This was brought up again by the Kem Counsel president; however, Geletka was hesitant to say this would be a possibility.

“As you know, the amount of jaywalking is out of control,” Geletka said. “That exit lets out right next to the road and we would not want to promote jaywalking.”

Geletka also said that Residence Life looks at benefiting any hall as a whole and putting card access in would not do that for Kem. However, she did encourage Kem residents to sign petitions and continue to voice their requests for consideration.

When 24/7 visitation was brought up, several different issues were addressed.

Students once again questioned the visitation policy in Jacobs, due to the recent co-ed changes, and Amstutz, which has been co-ed for some time. Even though student senate approved it, it was later shot down and never implemented. Geletka said that 24/7 visitation is a want and not a need.

“If you look at your handbook, ‘need’-based policies involve the health and safety of students,” Geletka wrote in an e-mail. “These are policies that you will find at any college or university. Visitation is a ‘want’ of some students, but it is not likely that anyone’s health or safety will be violated by their friend having to leave at 2 a.m.”

A student also wanted to know if 24/7 visitation could be implemented on weekends, due to the increased number of friends or siblings that visit then. Many students agree that if everyone goes home on the weekend, which often happens, it is very hard to find a friend or even a person of the opposite sex that can host your friend or sibling for the night.

“You have to look at both ends of the spectrum,” Geletka said. She went on to say that if 24/7 weekend visitation was allowed, what would roommates do while siblings were staying the night?

Geletka said that, no matter what residential topics are being discussed, students need to think of all the consequences, not just the good ones.