Some students are frustrated with the signing in process of the Cabrini Apartment Complex. Stricter enforcement of the policies in the apartments located on campus is causing more students to disagree.
The CAC is considered an on-campus resident hall. CAC is located at the very end of Residential Boulevard. That particular section is blocked off from the construction of West Residence Hall. On the west side of campus, the complex stands three stories high and includes living space for approximately 116 junior and senior residents.
“Seniors and juniors don’t seem to understand while living in the apartments they have to sign people in, they feel that if they live in the apartments they have earned the right to not have to sign people in,” READ De Sabato, a senior English and communication major and first floor resident assistant of the CAC, said.
Every night at 10 p.m., a public safety officer comes to sit in the entrance at a desk to ensure that all visitors are signed into the building until visiting hours are over. From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the weekdays and from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on the weekends anyone who enters must present a form of identification that proves they live there or are visiting with a person who is a resident willing to sign them in, much like the underclass dorms. A resident is only allowed to sign in two people at a time, and overnight stays are rarely allowed.
“I personally think that the two per person rule is stupid because this should be like a real apartment and I should be able to have as many people as I want [over] as long as we’re not disturbing everyone else in the hallway,” Linda Jeon-Baptiste, a junior special and elementary education major, said.
Jeon-Baptiste’s roommate, Vanity McDaniel, agreed with her and said, “We lived in New Res and I liked it because we could sneak people in from the back door and it was a lot easier than living in the apartments.” This is the first year for both Jeon-Baptiste and McDaniel living in the CAC.
In between the underclassmen dorms such as Woodcrest, Xavier and New Residence Hall and the CAC are the on-campus houses. Houses 1 through 7 hold sophomore to senior residents, and unlike the apartments, do not have a signing in process or public safety present every night.
De Sabato has never had a personal experience with trouble signing in visitors but has heard complaints. He feels that because of previous residents and the damages that occurred in the past years, the current residents must pay for their mistakes.
“It has been a lot more strict,” Lauren McStravick, a junior psychology major and resident of the CAC, said. “It kind of sucks because pretty much all the people that live in the apartments are upperclassmen,” McStravick said. McStravick is also a first year resident of the CAC.
Second floor resident, John Casparro, a junior finance and accounting major, compared Cabrini to Rutgers University. “It’s so much worse, and people don’t realize how lucky they are here at Cabrini. Like how there is no crime, nothing really happens. There are no fights, there’s really nothing. You never hear of knife fights, you never hear of guns, nothing bad,” Casparro said.
He felt that it was not fair for the juniors and seniors in CAC to have to sign in their friends, when sophomores in the houses do not have to do that. “If I want to have a friend from home visit, I have to go through all these technicalities just to have him come up,” Casparro said.
Casparro, like many other students, felt that signing in visitors was not a problem, but the time limits were. He also disagreed with the overnight process. Casparro recalled an incident where he was hassled about having a fellow Cabrini student stay overnight. His friend was drinking and Casparro did not want him to drive. “I had to convince them to let him stay and I think that’s ridiculous,” Casparro said.
“I think people are going to find a way around any rule that you ever have,” De Sabato said. De Sabato feels that having public safety at the CAC is not a problem. He thinks having public safety around at 10 p.m. is better than not having them there at all.
Tutaleni Asino, assistant director for the Community Standards at the Office of Residence Life, said that the goal of having people signed in was to have people who do not reside in the building to be accounted for. All guests that arrive before 10 p.m. in the apartments are supposed to go downstairs and be signed in by a resident. He thinks that the policies are adhered to.
“I do not know what age has to do with signing people into the building,” Asino said. Asino feels that having security at all buildings on campus is important not only to Resident Life and Public safety, but to the campus as a whole.
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Posted to the web by Shane Evans
