As you all know, it’s almost time for University of Wisconsin students’ second favorite holiday – after the Mifflin Street Block Party, of course. It’s a whole weekend of tricks, hopefully treats and certainly debauchery. It’s time for Halloween.
Madison, specifically the university, has a national reputation for throwing a pretty raucous party the weekend of Halloween. Even with the lame white-washing of Freakfest, everyone near and far knows there are still places in the city to make a weekend full of memories – or maybe no memories at all.
It was no surprise a few years ago when the dorms started limiting who they would allow to stay overnight. It is the university’s job to do its best to keep students safe and out of trouble. In past years rental companies have began to follow suit, limiting the number of guests allowed in many of the student high rises.
These limitations are not exactly lax, either. An email sent to Pres House residents said only pre-registered guests will be allowed to enter the building this weekend after 5 p.m. tonight, adding there will be on-site security to enforce the rule.
While it is totally within the rights of these companies to limit guests – as long as restrictions are listed in the lease, as they were with Pres House – there is no reason for them to do so. Unlike the university, the private apartment you choose to live in has no responsibility to make sure your friends aren’t causing any trouble.
In fact, limiting guests could create more problems than it solves. Out-of-towners are coming to Madison this weekend. There’s no way around it this year; there likely won’t be for many years in the future. The more minor annoyances – students living in these buildings can’t have friends over to study, they can’t get ready to go to parties together, they have to sleep apart – can be justified in the name of keeping people safe for a university, but not for a private residence.
The minor annoyances aren’t the only problem I foresee arising. Many students living in high rises will encourage friends to come anyway, saying either they will attempt to sneak them past security or that they will find them a couch to crash on somewhere. Sometimes this will work out: Residents will have friends in houses; maybe security will be lenient on a group of small girls at 3 a.m. However, not everyone will be so lucky, and some people will likely be left out in the cold and dark – or on the road.
Other out-of-towners will drive in just for the day, a situation that could endanger more than just the person without a place to sleep. No matter what their level of intoxication at the end of the night, they will either have to drive home or have nowhere else to go. Drunken driving is always a problem in Madison on major holidays, and barring guests from staying in friends’ apartments will only add to the issue.
On a night like Halloween when debauchery rules and law breaking is societally encouraged, it is a bad idea to restrict access to safe spaces. For the university, banning guests is about protecting the safety and well being of its students. For apartments that priority is not there.
Ironically, the Pres House email ends with, “HAVE A SAFE, HAPPY AND FUN HALLOWEEN!”
Happy and fun probably will not be a problem for most residents and their out of town friends, but when access to a bed, couch or floor near the only people you know in Madison is taken from you, safe is much harder to come by. And that ruins everyone’s Halloween.
Carolyn Briggs ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in English.