Barnard gals in a ‘walk of shame’ furor
Students rip college’s ‘humiliating’ dorm rule
Red-faced students at a posh women-only college in Manhattan are fed up with a rule that forces them into an embarrassing walk of shame every time they get frisky with a hot date in their dorm, a survey has revealed.
A “humiliating” decadeold mandate forces Barnard College students to sign guests in and out of their dorm buildings — and accompany their boyfriend, or booty call, at all times.
“Sometimes, I’ll sign a guy in and out in the middle of the night and then you have to do this awkward goodbye thing in front of security. It’s so uncomfortable for both parties,” said sophomore Dara Diamond.
Residents of all 12 dorms and their guests must show ID to the front desk security guard, who then scrawl the names in a log book — an official record of what may have been a night spent more than studying.
And the “strict” guards treat students “like children” and are “super judgy” about bringing a late-night date up to their rooms, say students at the Morningside Heights school, where tuition, room and board is a about $63,000 a year.
“They give you a weird look and make judgmental comments,” griped freshman Eva Muilineaux, 17. “Like if I sign my boyfriend in and out a few times in a row, they’ll be like ‘ Oh, you guys are upstairs a lot.’ ”
Sophomore Sofia Wymin, 19, was even put on probation — for not accompanying a date to the toilet.
“I wasn’t going to go stand outside for him to be done. It’s just absurd,” Wymin said.
Some guards play favorites, handing out violations to students on their naughty list, according to senior Amelia Ames, 22.
“If they like you, they’ll look the other way and not enforce the rules, but they’ll get really strict if they don’t like you. Totally depends on the dorm and the person working,” Ames said.
The October survey by Barnard College’s Student Government Association found 71 percent of students at the school said they “dis- agree” with the policy and want it overturned.
Adding to the students’ humiliation, Barnard’s affiliate school, Columbia University, doesn’t have the same rule.
Columbia students “always joke that our doors are a chastity gate,” Diamond said.
“If this school is all about female independence, then that should include our sexuality, too.”
The policy was put into place just under 10 years ago “for safety reasons,” said Barnard spokeswoman Beth Kwon. She did not elaborate.
But it was around that time, on Dec. 14, 2006, that a man attempted to rape a Columbia student at her Washington Heights apartment.
Four months later, another Columbia student was raped and tortured for 19 hours in her Hamilton Heights apartment.
About 20 percent of Barnard students reported being a victim of sexual assault in the last year, up 3 percent from last year, according to a recent campus survey.