Fordham University’s Office of Residential Life announced an official change to the university’s guest policy on the Rose Hill Campus, now allowing students to have overnight guests of the opposite gender.
In an email sent by Vice President for Student Affairs Michele Burris and Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Christopher Rodgers, students were informed that beginning on April 5, “Rose Hill resident students will be able to secure overnight guest passes for guests regardless of gender and provided they have prior consent of roommates.”
This announcement follows the premature announcement of the policy released to residents following winter break in January. The change was made to the policy “after a semester of consultation with elected student leaders and the student body via the Student Life Council,” said Burris and Rodgers’ email.
“I have a girlfriend, so I appreciate the change in guest pass policy,” said Brady Kitterick, FCRH ’27.
The Lincoln Center campus will not be adopting the new guest pass policy, however. Sara Sullivan, FCRH ’27, said, “I don’t think that makes sense because if Fordham is a unified school, why wouldn’t both campuses have the same policy?”
In addition to the policy change, Residential Life is requiring that roommates consent to opposite-gender guests via email to ensure that all members of a room are comfortable with the guest spending the night.
“The idea is nice, but the email is really excessive,” said Marlena Wrabley, FCRH ’27.
“I think that [the emailing] allows roommates to have that boundary so there’s no misconduct,” said Cadence Wahl, FCRH ’26.
Other Jesuit colleges and universities across the country have varying policies regarding overnight guests. Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles allows residents to have overnight guests of any gender with roommate approval, similar to Fordham’s newly updated policy. However, Boston College in Chestnut Hills, Mass., does not allow for guests of a different gender to spend the night.
Over the years, many students have expressed a need for Fordham to update the policy to reflect modern perceptions towards opposite-gender relationships. “I think it’s silly that it’s taken this long and that there have been so many rules against us,” said Aaron Dressler, FCRH ’27. “I feel like you should be able to just talk it out with your roommate and not have to send an email to have a guest approved.”
The new policy will allow more siblings, family members, friends and potential Rams to spend the night on Rose Hill’s campus, experiencing the true Fordham campus experience.
“The process of consultation made clear that obvious and well-known workarounds to the long-standing restriction on guest passes had rendered the original policy ineffective and that it affected students in ways that were not equitable, including the unintended effect of encouraging overnight guests with no discussion among those assigned together in housing,” said the statement.
“I feel very fondly towards the change in policy, I think it’s a great improvement in dorm life,” said Wahl. “It allows people to be more honest with each other and not feel like they can’t live in their own space freely.”
The process to get an overnight pass for a guest remains the same, just adding on the need to get roommate approval through their residence hall’s resident director. Guests without an overnight pass must be signed out of residence halls by 3:30 a.m.
