A little over two years ago, I packed up a few belongings and some clothes at my house and prepared to move away from home for the first time in my life. I had lived in the same room in the same house from the time I was a small child and was both excited and nervous about the newfound freedom that awaited me at Loyola.

Each year, many first-year students prepare to live on their own for the first time, away from all the comforts and conveniences of home and into a world where they are responsible for managing their own schedule, assuming responsibilities for themselves, and making their own decisions.

With this in mind, it must have come as a shock to some resident students that they are not allowed to have opposite sex guests stay in their rooms overnight or even to check them in after certain hours for their entire first year. This seems excessive (not to mention prudish), especially in light of the lack of restrictions on visitation after the first year.

One of the possible alternatives is to reduce the time period to one semester, which is deemed adequate for students to adjust to college life and learn to make responsible decisions. The more radical alternative is to do away with it altogether.

So why persist with such a policy, especially in light of the fact that the prohibition can be circumvented (albeit still illegally) if one is truly determined?

Neither of these is really acceptable when one thinks about what the first-year visitation policy forces students to do.    T h i s policy creates a critical extra step in the decision-making process, a step which forces a student trying to check in an opposite sex guest to reconsider how committed they are to the idea.

By making the process more complicated and requiring more advanced planning, one is forced to both take responsibility for their actions and strongly consider how devoted they are to seeing it carried through and facing the ramifications for being caught in violation (yes, visitation policy enforcement does not just end at the front desk).

Some might label me a prude, but I simply want to point out that despite the problems with the policy, it is still effective in its own dysfunctional way; much like the Maginot Line forced the Germans to think more creatively to outsmart the French in World War II.

The argument against the visitation policy that holds it should be reconsidered because the loopholes in it prevent it from being ineffective is, in my opinion, without merit. Despite the loopholes, it is very successful at making people think through their decisions to their (sometimes drunken and poorly planned) end.

So next time you go to check in an opposite sex guest (even you, upperclassmen) think critically about what you are doing. Are you really ready to commit an entire night to the person you are with? If you have your doubts at the doors of the residence halls, you can thank the first-year visitation policy for preventing you some embarrassment in the morning.

Garret Fontenot is a Maroon columnist and a Resident Assistant in Buddig Hall. He can be reached at [email protected]