VSA works to standardize noise regulations

Aaron Biberstein Editor in Chief

Confusion has erupted over a disagreement in policy between the Residential Life Handbook and Campus Activities party registration forms regarding quiet hours on weekends. The disagreement was discovered when campus security began breaking up parties earlier than hosts and guests expected.
The Res Life handbook says, “Quiet must be maintained between the hours of 11 p.m. and 10 a.m., Sunday to Thursday, and 1 a.m. to noon, Friday and Saturday."

However, this language contradicts that of the Vassar College Party Permission form from the Office of Campus Activities. Under the heading “Party Information,” this form states “parties may not exceed four hours in length and must end by 2 a.m., unless otherwise restricted.”

The two forms differ in their presentation of weekend quiet hours by one hour—the Res Life Handbook calls for the conclusion of parties (quiet) at 1 a.m. and the College Party Permission form at 2 a.m.

According to Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Joe Wildfire ’05, these two documents are the only instances of quiet hour rules in all of the College’s regulations, and this contradiction has gone unnoticed for 19 years.

“What amazes me is that the quiet hour system is based only on one page in the Res Life Handbook and one line on a party permission form,” he said. “I think there should be a lot more consistency in the policies across the entire campus.”

Dean of the College JJ Jackson expressed similar sentiments. “Committees don’t always have time to make sure there is consistency and sensibleness in the regulations they enact, and so periodically it becomes necessary to look at all regulations and make sure there is consistency,” she said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

To this end, Jackson is working with the Committee on College Life to revise the conflicting regulations. The Committee on College Life is comprised of four elected students and various administrators and faculty who work with the Dean of the College to recommend changes in academic and residential policy.

Dean Jackson is also assembling a student advisory committee to help tackle the problem.
“I’m interested in not only students who are presidents or officers in organizations (for the student advisory committee), but students who are living at Vassar and are involved with life here,” she said. “We’re looking at life at Vassar and seeing how it can be made better.” Jackson said that the process is still in its infancy and no concrete policies have been set yet.

Jackson could not account for the disagreement in policy, nor how the contradiction was missed for so long, but she expressed enthusiasm about smoothing regulations.

“I’ve been here three months. The way life works is tha people have only so many hours in the day, they pay attention to some things, and now that some things have been fixed we can pay attention to some things that aren’t fixed,” she said. “I’ve now come along to help with some of those things that haven’t got attention yet.”

At the past two VSA meetings, the discrepancy between quiet hours and party times has been a topic of discussion. Student representatives debated who the decision will affect. In addition, several dorm representatives brought up the fact that professors who live on campus and house advisors with small children must live with the decision on noise regulations as well.

On Sunday, Oct. 31, the VSA discussed the possibilty of opening dialogues with the student body and administrators. Some students remarked that the purpose of the VSA is to represent constintuents’ interests, so there is not a need for discussion with the entire student body. Other students said that there were many different student views on the current noise rules, and that an open discussion would be necessary.

The VSA is empowered to vote on quiet hours, but they plan on engaging in more discussions with Res Life and other members of the Vassar community before conducting a formal vote. Still, members of the VSA said that they do want to solve the problem soon to prevent misunderstandings and confusion about the rules.

Rick Rodems ’06, Raymond House President and Committee on College Life member is optimistic about the chance to revise the College’s quiet-hour policy. “Ever since the VSA was created in the early 20th century, the College has placed enormous confidence in the VSA council to manage its own affairs,” he said.

Rodems said that there is a “strong student voice” in all decisions regarding this policy and urged students away from seeing this as a crackdown.

“Let’s all take a deep breath,” he said. “I think it speaks to the Vassar community that our problems are [whether it’s] 1 or 2 a.m.”