With Madison's Halloween celebration less than a week away, the reality is setting in for University of Wisconsin dormitory residents who cannot host visitors this year.

UW housing has experimented with different guest policies in the past, including guest registration and last year's policy of not allowing UW dorm residents to stay with friends who live in a separate dorm.

UW freshman Maggie Stecich, who lives in Sellery Hall, said she was surprised when she received a letter from University Housing informing her of the visitation policy for Halloween.

"I had heard that Halloween in Madison is just a huge party," Stecich said. "I didn't think the university would go so far as to not let us have guests though."

But Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam pushed the university's stance on reducing the number of out-of-towners in a Halloween forum earlier this month. Berquam said UW wants to "eliminate destructive behavior" and reducing visitors may aid this goal.

University Housing Director Paul Evans, at the same forum, said the no-guest policy is meant to have a direct effect on the number of out of town visitors coming to Madison for Halloween.

"In general, UW students haven't been the problem," Evans said. "This is their campus, this is their city. We have found though that students may have some trouble keeping their visitors under control. Many visitors do not have the same respect for Madison that our students do."

To prepare for the visitor policies, Stecich said her house fellow met with her floor to go over other Halloween rules and regulations.

"Security will be checking for keys and your student ID before you can get into the dorms," Stecich said. "They're also locking all the doors to the building except for two. They're really concerned about security this year."

Stecich, who lives on the South Side of Chicago, said when she decided to enroll at UW her friends planned on visiting for Halloween. Like many other dorm residents' friends, the news of the guest policy was not well received.

"One of the first things they said to me was that they were going to come and visit on Halloween," Stecich said. "My friends were pissed when I told them they wouldn't be able to stay with me."

According to Evans, there will be no exceptions made to the no-guest policy but added they did lift the dorm resident visitation policy for this year.

"Many of our residents were disappointed that they could not spend the night in a different dorm," Evans said. "So, we've taken away out-of-town visitors, but we've given back residents' ability to stay in another dorm. They may not view it as a fair trade, but it's a trade that we were willing to make."

Stecich said she was glad to hear dorm residents would not be completely deprived of their ability enjoy the Halloween weekend as normally as possible.