"Study Extension"

When I was at BU, the dorm guest policy was a little behind the times. You couldn't stay past 11pm in a dorm that wasn't yours. So officially I wasn't allowed to stay the night with my boyfriend in his dorm.

That in itself wasn't what annoyed me. What annoyed me was the loophole. They had this thing called "study extension." You could sign up for it any day of the week - including Friday - and you were allowed to remain in the dorm until 7am, at which point you had to come downstairs and re-swipe your card to sign in again.

This meant that every single weekend, couples would sign up for study extension, and every single Saturday morning at 7am, there would be a tired group of couples standing there in pajamas at the front desk to swipe their cards. This infuriated me. If you've created a loophole in your rules that essentially allows the very thing you've prohibited, and it's blindingly obvious that this is what your loophole is being used for, why on earth would you not just go ahead and legalize overnights? All it created was a giant headache for both students and staff. Luckily, BU changed the rule eventually (right after I graduated of course). But I was reminded of it again this week.

NCSU requires that I obtain North Carolina residency for the second year of my assistantship; otherwise I will have to pay the out-of-state balance in my second year. Again, I have no problem with this.

What annoys me is that the university itself continually sends me reminders and tips on how to do this effectively. In my orientation meeting, I was actually told to do a bunch of things like take out a public library card to help "build my case" and that if asked I should lie and say, "Of COURSE I'm going to live in Raleigh forever! It's great here! Look, I even have a library card!" no matter what my long-term plans are.

So, in other words, the university is encouraging me to lie in order to convince the university that I am a North Carolina resident.

If the university A) wants me to become a North Carolina resident and also B) knows that I may very well may not stay in Raleigh long-term, I don't understand why they insist on so much extra work. I don't have to prove my residency to an outside party, just some guy in an office somewhere on Hillsborough Street. Why not be satisfied with a change of driver license and 12 months of residence? Sure, maybe it's taking advantage of the university - but the university itself is encouraging (and in fact requiring) me to take advantage of it! Stuff like this just drives me crazy. I'm sure that when I'm filling out the library card application or whatever else, I'll feel just like I did when I was exhausted in my pajamas trying not to look a security guard in the eye as I sign out from my "study extension" on a Saturday morning.