1. The Dreaded, Unspoken Barnard Guest Sign-in Policy

Every student at Barnard despises the complicated guest sign-in policy. A guest is considered someone who is a non-resident of the residence hall. For a Barnard student to access another Barnard residence hall, it is easy: the student just presents a valid Barnard ID to the Access Attendant and is able to walk on in. The trouble starts when a Barnard student wants to sign in a non-Barnard guest.

For a Barnard student to successfully sign in a non-Barnard guest into a Barnard residence hall, the Barnard student must meet the guest at the front desk with a valid Barnard ID and the guest must have some form of identification on them. The Barnard student must tell the Access Attendant their room number, show their Barnard ID, and the Access Attendant will take the guest’s ID for the duration of the guest(s) visit. Barnard students are permitted to only have 3 guests at a given time for no more than three consecutive nights.

The Barnard student or resident host must “escort their guest(s) at all times” and additionally the Barnard student must escort their guest to the front desk in order for the guest to get their ID back —so doesn’t this mean that the Barnard student is essentially babysitting their guest?—Well, yes. Barnard students’ aggravation with the signing in policy for guests stems from this unnecessarily strict escorting rule for guests at all times.

Next, check out the Top 10 Secrets of Columbia University.