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Written by: Jezerc Begaj
Over 60 percent of the 1,250 students who took a Residence Hall Association (RHA) quiet hours survey answered that they were not satisfied with the current quiet hours policy.
The survey, which was sent out to the Bentley undergraduate student body on February 9, 2010, contained questions that asked students what they thought the quiet hours should be, or if they were pleased with the current hours.
Quiet hours are from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday evenings, and from 1:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, except as modified by the academic calendar.
73 percent of students said that they wanted quiet hours to begin after 10 p.m. on school nights, and 85 percent wanted it to change to 2 a.m. on the weekends.
President of RHA Marc Santilli says that the motto of RHA is “For the Residents By the Residents.” “We want everyone living in the residence halls to have a say, so we work with Residence Life and the Dean to create new policies,” he continued.
Santilli also added that “RHA’s intentions going into the survey were to increase weekday hours to 10 p.m., and to increase weekend hours to 2 a.m..”
After reviewing all of the surveys, Santilli and the rest of RHA were surprised to see that students wanted more from the policy than just changing the hours.
Based on the feedback, Santilli got the notion that “students also want enforcement of the current hours.” Residents feel that the quiet hours are simply not enforced.
The problem with enforcement today is that many residents feel that it is the RA’s job on each floor to maintain order and make sure that everyone else is quiet during quiet hours.
In reality, according to Bentley’s Student Handbook, “All students are expected to assist in enforcing this policy. If someone is creating a disturbance, first approach the person and politely ask for quiet. If the person is uncooperative, contact a Residence Life staff member.”
But Santilli and others see a problem with this policy. “Residents are afraid of retribution if they ask their neighbors to quiet down,” says Santilli. It is only reasonable that students would want to avoid confrontation with each other over whether they are quiet or not.
The responses from the survey have changed RHA’s former ideas and opinions. RHA’s first intention of changing the hours has taken a backseat. Now they want to meet with the administrators of Residence Life and look for new resolutions.
“RHA is looking to educate and work with administrators to find a compromise between residents and administration,” says Santilli.
But to create a new policy, the RHA will have to go through a lengthy process, meeting with many different groups and administrators.
RHA has some resolutions that they have presented to the Resident Life professional staff, but significant changes are not expected to occur until RHA can get past its multi-step process to change policies.
Some of these resolutions include lengthening the quiet hours for one weekend or a whole week to test the new hours and try to figure out any complications with the change. Another resolution would have longer quiet hours for upperclassmen suites and apartments, but not for freshmen dorms.
“Changing or leaving the quiet hours, it all depends on the willingness of the residents and administration working together to find a mutual agreement that works best for both parties,” says Santilli.
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