University Housing created more problems than solutions for Halloween festivities when it declared this past summer that no guests will be allowed to stay in the dorms from Friday, Oct. 28 through Tuesday, Nov. 1. The tactic is meant to prevent out of town students, who accounted for 391 of the 450 arrests during Halloween in 2004, from attending the festivities. The no-guest policy is a dangerous step because the hazards far outweigh the benefits of keeping a minute percentage of the 75,000 party-goers away from Halloween in Madison.
This policy will leave University housing with two unappealing options. First, they could crack down and enforce the policy on the thousands of students who will still show up despite the proclamations of UW housing. Unfortunately, enforcing the policy creates a high potential for conflict between intoxicated out-of-town party-goers attempting to enter the dorms and those enforcing the no-guest rule. Even if there is no conflict in the dorms, kicking thousands of intoxicated 18- and 19-year-old students onto Madison streets near bar time is a potentially dangerous situation. Such action would increase the likelihood of riots, and create a public relations disaster for the university.
With this rule in place, the second option is to simply not enforce the policy, sending a message to freshmen that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will not enforce their policies, Halloween or otherwise.
Yet, the second option of talk without action provides the University with a unique opportunity to appease the mayor and other city officials who expect the University to crack down, but keep students happy, who will have guests despite the \enforcement."" It is our hope that the no-guest policy is just a poor decision, and not a political ploy to appease city officials.
