NEW ORLEANS (February 14, 2020) – A controversial ban on nonresidential drivers past midnight that left students having to leave their Uber ride or taxis and walk to their residences has been eased after student complaints.
Now, instead of requiring that all individuals in a vehicle after midnight must have a campus ID, the policy has been modified so that to require the ID of the driver and passengers while allowing them to enter campus.
Student Government Association President Traelon Rodgers said the SGA worked with campus police to reach the accommodation, noting that although the intentions of the university were geared towards ensuring student safety, students felt the policy was poorly executed.
An email sent Oct. 11, 2019, from Dr. Danette Saylor, assistant vice president for Student Success and dean of students, announced the change in the front-gate policy, along with a warning that no guests would be allowed in residence halls between midnight and 10 a.m. and that each person must swipe to enter rather than “piggy-backing” and entering on another person’s card swipe.
The email said these policies were part of “an ongoing effort to increase our campus and residence safety initiatives” while providing additional security coverage.
The gate ban stated that anyone entering the campus after 7 p.m. must show ID to the guard at the front gate before being allowed onto the campus. Furthermore, after midnight, all nonresidential drivers and passengers in the car would not be allowed on campus.
Almost immediately, students took to social media to voice their dissatisfaction about walking from the gate back to their dorm. Some students shared their concerns that walking all the way from the gate to their dorm rooms alone was more unsafe than allowing Uber drivers and other nonresidential people on the campus after hours.
In, again, an attempt to effectively serve the student body, Rodgers said DUPD and SGA worked together to find a resolution by requiring the ID of the driver and the passengers and allowing them to enter the campus.
Rodgers said, “We just made modifications to [the ban] so that students would feel safer, but so that the campus could actually be safer as well.”
(Kennedy Williams contributed to this report.)