Student Life (1960s)
From GWUEncyc
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“Elliott Refuses to Change Dormitory Guest Policy”
The housing squeeze at GW remains critical as the influx of antiwar protesters now reaches flood level. University President Lloyd H. Elliott has refused to permit more visitors in the dorms and the relief provided by existing Mobe shelters and fraternities will be slight. Elliott said yesterday he will not overrule a memorandum sent to all resident students by Associate Dean of Students Marianne Phelps, reaffirming the formal guest policy. This policy holds that no dorm may accommodate more people than it can supply with beds or cots.
This policy is based on the license and occupancy codes of the District. Several protest leaders insist that the government admits it will not enforce these codes during the demonstrations, but this has not changed policy at GW. University regulations prohibit sleeping in lounges, hallways, cafeterias and lobbies to insure "privacy and security in so far as possible in a group living situation," according to the memorandum.
The University has agreed to comply with a request from Miss Phelps concerning the stationing. She explained that students "may be required to present their student ID card upon entering the... halls, and guest visitors will be admitted only in the company of a resident student."
The Associate Dean noted yesterday that "we hope to operate the halls as normally as possible." She said there are no specific guidelines for enforcing the regulations because they will not be enforced unless a "security risk" develops. There are no plans, she continued, to lock the dorms at other than the usual times. Seth Kellsey, President of the Dorm Council at Mitchell Hall, said that the Mitchell Council passed a resolution November 3, requesting that three areas of the dorm be opened to use by visiting demonstrators.
The resolution was overruled and no further action was taken by the Council on the grounds that the official University policy was sufficiently flexible as to permit the housing of visiting students as guests. In contrast to the Mitchell Hall resolution, Bob Mazzoni, President of Calhoun Hall Dorm, announced that his council had upheld the Phelps memorandum and sought no amendments to it. A similar stance was taken by Crawford and Strong women's dorms. Elsewhere on campus, a majority of GW's fraternity houses plan to sleep friends, relatives and visiting fraternity brothers during the weekend. Each house expects, to provide space for 10 to 25, although Kappa Sigma reports that it may house up to 100.
Only one fraternity is allowing no guests whatever. This is Sigma Alpha Mu, which explained that they had bad experiences with the guests who stayed in the SAM house during the October Moratorium. At the other extreme, the TEP house is the only one which may allow total strangers to stay. The TEP's plan to fill the first floor and bedrooms with themselves and their friends, leaving any space in the basement to visiting college students. Other houses are making no special provision for strangers. They are letting individual members decide who may stay in their own rooms, with the refit of the buildings left for other friends of the brothers. Delta Tau Delta will admit "as many as possible," according to one of its brothers, with all the beds and couches filled. Sigma Phi Epsilon is going so far as to move some brothers into the dorms for the weekend to make room for visiting demonstrators.
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Author or Source: Hatchet, November 13, 1969
Document Location: University Archivies
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 11, 2006
Prepared by:Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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