After a two-year disappearance, dormitory visitation has returned to Loomis Chaffee with a new framework and set of policies. The new program began for upperclassmen in mid-September, sparking excitement but also prompting many questions and concerns from students and faculty on campus.
“The landscape for independent schools has shifted dramatically,” Dean of Student Life and Wellness Jessica Matzkin said. “We are held to a much higher standard in terms of the safety and protection of our students. There have been a number of legal ramifications for schools that don’t have clear and well-structured visitation policies.”
The new guidelines are meant to create a safe and comfortable environment for all community members. These new initiatives require students to check in and out of the dorms they visit, adhere to new visiting hours, leave the lights on in rooms, and keep the doors of dorm rooms open.
“I think visitation will positively affect campus because it will show [students] how to be responsible and prudent with our actions and decisions and prepare us for the outside world,” Lucas De la Vega ’23 said.
In addition to emphasizing the safety of the Loomis student body, the new visitation policies were drafted to foster a more inclusive environment for all community members. The guidelines created a uniform set of rules for all dorms on campus, including Flagg Hall, the school’s all-gender housing dormitory.
“[Independent schools] that have all-gender housing had to go through the same [process] that we did and ask, ‘Are we going to have two separate policies: one for all-gender housing and one for the rest of the community, or are we going to fix our visitation so that it is equitable, regardless of whether you live in all-gender housing or don’t?’” Dean Matzkin said.
Additionally, with the emergence of COVID-19 that prohibited dorm visitation, many groups of faculty and students began putting many hours into conversations about visitation addressing the need for change.
“When COVID happened we put visitation on pause … We were left with half the school never having experienced it, so it felt like if we were going to make the move, now was the right time for us.”
Due to visitation stopping the year after the pandemic struck and being limited last year, only this year’s seniors are familiar with LC’s prior visitation policy. Younger students do not have much to compare the school’s new policies to, which encouraged the institution to put these new guidelines into place as the school also relaxes COVID restrictions.
“I am very excited to be able to visit dorms again since I didn’t really get much of an experience my freshman year,” Emma Gregorski ’25 said, “I think visitation will have positive effects on students and inclusivity on campus.”
Underclassmen will begin having conversations surrounding visitation in the beginning of October, and, at that point, the entire school will begin participating in the brand new visitation guidelines, which are fully listed in the student handbook.
“I hope that visitation goes well,” Dean Matzkin said, “I always welcome conversations … so if people still have questions and they want to understand, they can come to talk to any of us.”