The University of Wisconsin-Madison is implementing a $100 guest fee, ID checking stations and increased staffing between Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 for Halloween weekend.
The $100 policy was similar in 2025, and in 2024, guests were not allowed at dorms at all over Halloween weekend, according to Director of Marketing and Communications at UW-Madison Division of University Housing Brendon Dybdahl. According to University Housing, the policy’s goal is keeping guests and students in the dorms safe, but students told The Daily Cardinal the guest policy could undermine the Halloweekend experience for those living in the dorms.
“It’s too expensive,” Freshman Gwen Tsaras told the Cardinal. “You just want friends to experience the ‘Madison Halloween,’ so it's annoying how expensive it is. I do understand the safety measures — a lot of people want to come to Madison for Halloween. I just think we’ve got to chill on the money.”
According to Dybdahl, University Housing modified the policy to implement the fee because residents in 2024 told them their visitors had no good options for a place to stay.
“The fee helps limit the number of non-students in our residence halls but offers more flexibility for those who need a guest option,” Dybdahl said in an email to the Cardinal. “The registered guest option worked well [in 2025].”
Typically, two guests can stay in a residence hall for up to three days.
According to University Housing, the guest fee covers the extra costs of keeping people safe, including increased staffing over the Halloween weekend. This includes more security, staffed entrances to verify those entering the building and extra housekeeping. It also covers police support, according to Dybdahl.
Registered guests must carry a photo ID at all times and cannot be UW-Madison students living in other residence halls or in Dane County.
Students said the policy is unfairly limiting.
“The rule is only dumb because there's people from Lakeshore who might not want to walk all the way back when it's too late,” Freshman Jules Da Costa told the Cardinal. “Then they can't come to Southeast because of this policy.”
Dybdahl recommended Lakeshore students “walk in groups, stay on lighted paths, use the SAFEwalk service or take the free campus bus.”
Sophia Polzer, a junior, told the Cardinal students may resort to leaving the dorms entirely during Halloweekend to avoid the guest policy.
“I can say firsthand I knew people who found very unsafe ways to work around [the policy], so I think it should not be a thing because we all know adolescence figures out a way to make things happen regardless,” Polzer said. “I think it would just be safer for everyone, especially freshmen — because primarily it's freshmen in the dorms — to have somewhere safe to go at the end of the night because they really don't know how to navigate their new college town [the] majority of the time.”
UW Housing said they provide students with enough time to prepare for the weekend.
“We do a lot of messaging with residents about the Halloween policy in advance so that they have plenty of time to make a plan, communicate with friends and think about safe behaviors,” Dybdahl said.
