Southeast Missouri State University - Sagamore Yearbook (Cape Girardeau, MO)

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LEAVING BEHIND THE open doors restric- tion, a Towers resident takes advantage of the new closed door privacy. Photo by Kinsey. Trial Open House

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ADDING SOME EXTRA COLOR to an already RELAXING ON ACADEMIC TERRACES, colorful autumn day, ROTC members Pam SEMO students and their parents enjoy a picnic Kildow and Melanie Pernia hand out balloons to lunch of hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips and parents and students before the football game. apples. ATTEMPTING TO GAIN YARDAGE for the Indians, Keith Hubbard tries to avoid being tackled by two Southwest Missouri players. Student I r 23

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Behind closed doors . by Sandy Gambill On a quiet night it ' s easy for veteran students to imagine cries of No surrogate parents! and You can ' t legislate morality! drifting across the lawns of Academic towards the dome. These were the battle cries of Lees- tamper ' s Campers in the fall of 1977. Perhaps the most controversial group on campus, they gathered on the terraces to protest outdated open house policies. The university finally did update its visitation policy as an eight-week trial program called The Guest Hour Program began. According to Jay Knauf, Residence Hall Association president, each floor had the choice of participating in the program and setting their hours. Under old policies, guests of the opposite sex had to sign in with the floor ' s resident adviser. Once in the room, doors had to remain open, lights on and feet on the floor. RA ' s then roamed the halls searching for violations. Under the new rules, check-in was abolished and doors could be closed, allowing greater privacy. The experiment ' s success was determined by records of reported violations and residents ' responses. All hall residents were expected to police their halls and report any unauthorized visitors to the RA. Expressing the generally F ositive RA response, Reggie Cannaday, Univer- sity Hall RA, said, It ' s a good idea, but still has a few problems that need to be worked out. At this point there are probably a lot of violations, and students aren ' t reporting as many as they should. Hopefully, with enough peer pressure, that will change. Residence hall dwellers were very receptive to the program. Sharon Grippo, a Dearmont resident, said, I like it much better. I think that if the administration expects us to act like adults, they should treat us like adults. Sharon also said the program would lead to more students continuing to living on campus who might otherwise move off. The privacy is great, she commented. It ' s more like having your own apartment. As for the future of the program, Knuaf expressed optimism. He .said the program would probably continue assuming there are no major catastro- phies. But would the program that Ron Orman, director of Residence Life, called a true experiment in self- government continue? That question could only be answered by students and the maturity with which they handled their new freedoms. WITH THEIR FEET OFF the Hoor. Linda Schuver and John Parker relax for an afternoon of studying in Linda s dorm room. Student Life 25