<p>What are y'all's opinions on parietals? (12 midnight curfew Sunday-Thursday and 2 am curfew Friday-Saturday) ... Just looking for some different points of view.</p>
<p>Hi Haley! Parietals are not nearly as bad as it sounds. The midnight curfew and 2 am curfew applies to the students' rooms. Students of the opposite sex must be out of the visiting room by those times. However, on the first floor of most dorms, there are common lounges that are not under these restrictions. The lounges are nice, comfortable rooms - lots of places to sit, big screen tvs, etc. </p>
<p>My daughter does not have any problems with parietals. Many of the students are actually relieved to have these restrictions as you don't have to worry about your roommate entertaining a guest throughout the night, leaving you to find somewhere else to sleep. That isn't everyone of course. There are probably as many students who are very much against parietals. Some object to parietals out of principle. She just hasn't found it to be a problem. </p>
<p>Parietals are strictly enforced and I've been told it is difficult to sneak anyone in and out. </p>
<p>Funny story from my daughter - Zahm Hall, a guy's dorm that has a reputation for housing guys that are a bit wacky (bet you haven't heard that word in awhile!:)) has a moose in the basement in their common lounge. The first time you come to the lounge, you must kiss the moose! I was rolling when I heard about d's first visit to the legendary lounge. </p>
<p>The moose was recently taken by another hall which I won't divulge. ;) There is a funny story about it on the nd tv site, <a href="http://www.ndtv.net%5B/url%5D">www.ndtv.net</a> - episode 0.2. Fast forward past the Regis interview to see it.</p>
<p>I highly doubt I'd have any real problem with parietals. It's just not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>People moan about parietals, but they really aren't that bad. I graduated from ND in 1984, and remember how much we used to gripe about parietals when I lived on campus. Of course, griping about everything from parietals to the food in the dining hall to professors who needed to be introduced to the inside of a shower stall is part of the bonding experience of college students no matter where they are.</p>
<p>You need to look at parietals (called visitation hours on other campuses, but parietals at ND) as it regards not yourself and your opposite-sex friends (or more than friends :) ). You need to look at them in the context of consideration for your roommates in the dorm. 11 p.m. on a weeknight is pretty late for someone to have any guest in a room--which is nearly always shared, by the way--regardless of gender. Ditto for 2 a.m. on a weekend night. If you just can't live without your study buddy or love interest, there are all sorts of common areas and also the pathways of either lake.</p>
<p>I understood the point of parietals much better when I moved off-campus my senior year, and there was no Du Lac guide to set limits on behavior. We had a one-bedroom apartment, and my roommate had a VERY steady boyfriend, to put it mildly. I don't know which was worse, being locked out of my own bedroom because...well, you know...or having to step over the two of them in the living room on the way to bed at whatever wee hour of the morning it happened to be. Parietals make the university be the "bad guy" who tells your PDA-addicted roommate to get a room--elsewhere!</p>
<p>My parents--my dad especially--said yes to Notre Dame because he figured its entrenched Catholicism would make it free from all of the collegiate vices that afflict other college campuses. Obviously, he was off the mark. Not everyone at ND has a halo, to say the least.</p>
<p>That being said, however, be advised that ND takes parietals VERY seriously. Enforcement varies from dorm to dorm. The girls' dorms (I lived in Lyons Hall) are MUCH stricter than the guys' dorms, but some guys' rectors are really persnicketty, too. It's natural to want to break rules, but the risks are very high. I remember one girl, was on an ROTC scholarship, ready to enter her junior year, and had a guy friend help her set stuff up in her room a few days before the year began. It was totally platonic. He fell asleep and got caught after parietals. Both were expelled. She lost her ROTC scholarship and risked admission to med school. Don't know what happened to him.</p>
<p>Main point is, you take a risk to break parietals. I'm not saying if I or anyone I might have known every broke them, but, just in case we ever did, we were taking a HUGE risk that wasn't worth taking. Go to a common room, go to the Student Center or that new 24-hour cafe in the South Dining Hall, or go to one of the lakes. Or stick it out a year and go move off-campus. </p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't risk your tenure at ND on parietals. It isn't worth it.</p>
<p>I only hope my son can get in EA, so he can be similarly oppressed :) .</p>
<p>My son feels the same way as both of you. Parietals are a pain <em>occasionally</em>, and more often than not they're welcomed. </p>
<p>Ddjones, my brother graduated in 1984. He's a bald guy (yes, by age 22) who drove a golf cart around after his bike was stolen - which for most people is the only way they remember him :)</p>
<p>The opinion of my friends at ND and the general consensus (according to them) is that parietals suck, but they're a small price to pay for everything else you get at ND.</p>