Kelsey Bundra
Editor-In-Chief

BestColleges.com stated that Millersville University is one of the safest college campuses in US. This comes on the coattails of housing introducing a new guest policy for the residence halls.

“The major change between last year’s guest policy and this year’s is that every guest must be signed in at the residence hall front office. In the previous years, students would have to sign in their overnight guests, but did not need to sign in guests that were not staying overnight,” Matthew Rutkoski, the Residence Hall Director at Millersville University, said.

south side suites
Housing has changed the policies for safety in the residence halls. Photo courtesy of millersville.edu.

Guests are now characterized as short term and overnight guests. A short term guest is anyone not assigned to live in a student’s room. A student is allowed two guests at a time. Exceptions are made for visiting family members.

“Short term guests may visit residents from 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., seven days a week,” Rutkoski said.

Overnight guests are people that are staying in a student’s room between the hours of midnight and noon the next day. The resident of the room may not have overnight guests for more than three consecutive nights. The limit is eight nights a month. Consent should be given for the guest staying over to every resident of the room or suite.

In order to sign in either a short term or overnight guest, the host with the guests will be required to go to the front desk of the residence hall. A housing staff member will record their information in their logs. The housing staff needs both the host’s and the guests’ names, room numbers and phone numbers. ID of both parties will need to be presented. Overnight guest situations will require the other roommates’ agreement within the guest log.

Guest pass will then be distributed to the guest. These are given to overnight guests and non-MU guests.

“The front desks for all of our residence halls are open from 12 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Desk Attendants work the desk from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Resident Assistants work the desk from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., but will still be on-call and in the residence hall till 7 a.m.,” Rutkoski said.

Housing staff is trained in safety procedures employed by the university. Both resident assistants and desk attendants receive training on what to do and who to call during an emergency situation. Less straightforward situations can be handled by referring to their manuals.
If a student needs to report unsafe behavior in the residence halls, students can go to the front desk or speak to anyone on the housing staff. Severe emergencies will require a call to MUPD.