Edited by: Gauri Jhangiani (ASP 2019)
A recent development in student life at Ashoka is the amendment of the Residence Life cross-access policy. Earlier this academic year, members of the girls residence couldn’t access the boys hall from 12:30 am to 9:30 am and vice-versa. Now, after many surveys, focus groups and discussions, we are allowed full 24-hour access on weekends only, the weekdays retaining the same hours as before. In Ashoka’s five short years it has undergone a number of changes to this policy, each one eliciting some strong response from either the student body or the admin. As a first year, I’ve lived through only one of these upheavals, but I’ve heard stories of previous changes to the policy and have gathered a few opinions of my own.
A major contention to the policy has always been the heteronormative stance: at Ashoka there are two men’s halls and two women’s and there is full access between SH1 and Sh3 (men’s) and SH2 and SH4 (women’s) respectively, but not cross-gendered access. While the university has made claims that the reason for the non-access hours include increased violations of quiet hours, roommate squabbles, etc. none of these are specifically gendered issues. Therefore, in a particularly sex-positive, LGBTQIA+ friendly campus, this argument isn’t particularly strong. It’s hard to monitor people of the same gender crossing halls, but it doesn’t necessarily excuse the policy.
Another point, which I’m sure many people may disagree with me on, is the issues of roommates fighting, quiet hours being violated and other conflicts that may arise because of overnight guests frequenting the residences. These are all part of navigating college life. When you leave home and move into a dorm, or any place where you have to live with people, it’s important to deal with these conflicts yourself. How can we learn how to be adults and be more independent when the administration actively interferes in such matters? I’ve heard stories of things getting “out of hand” when there was 24/7 access which might be true, but I believe that the RAs and wardens are there specifically to intervene in such cases. Taking care of the problem on your own promotes generally having more empathy towards your peers and ultimately helps you to navigate the difficulties associated with certain spaces within a controlled environment before you’re actually sent out into ‘the real world.’
I’m definitely not complaining about the change in the cross-access policy, I think it’s an excellent step, especially as a testing ground so as to not repeat history and prove to our administration that we can be mindful and that we are responsible enough to live as adults (yet to be proven, but I’m cautiously optimistic). I guess we’ll see how things turn out, but ultimately I’m grateful for this change and I only hope things move forward from here.