In an effort to discourage out-of-town visitors for State Patty’s Day weekend, Penn State Residence Life is implementing a guest policy effective Friday and Saturday for all on-campus residence halls.

All on-campus students living in regular double rooms will be permitted one guest per room for Friday and Saturday of this weekend. Students living in supplemental living spaces will be allowed two guests.

On-campus students have been informed of the continuation of this policy since the beginning of the semester, with information being disseminated through Stall Stories, meetings between RAs and residents, and emails between Residence Life personnel and students. The policy was first utilized last year after being proposed by executives of the Association of Residence Hall Students.

“There was a dramatic decrease in the amount of write-ups and arrests on campus last year. Very few of the students arrested last year within the residence halls were actually University Park students,” said Caleb Fernandez, current President of the Association of Residence Hall Students. “The amount of housing violations and ‘write-ups’ was close to non-existent due to the one guest policy.”

Given the structure of our residence halls, an obvious question is how is a policy such as this enforced? Unlike other schools like Temple and West Chester, there is no check-in desk or registration policy for guests.

“This policy is enforced through the increased amount of residence assistant and Auxiliary Police rounds throughout the weekend,” said Fernandez. “[They] obviously can’t enter a student’s room without just cause, but if given a reason to, they won’t hesitate to knock on a student’s door.”