A Varsity investigation into colleges’ overnight guest policies has found that strict policies exist across all undergraduate Cambridge colleges, and students are often unaware of their existence and implications. Reports from current and former undergraduates have also uncovered considerable discrepancies in the enforcement of overnight guest policies, both across and within colleges.

In general, most colleges have a cap of two or three nights as to how long a guest can consecutively stay in their host’s room. Guests are also nearly always required to be signed in at the porters’ lodge. Another common policy feature is to have a total cap on how many nights per term an undergraduate can host a guest in their room.

Many students were unaware that such policies existed, with several telling Varsity that this was the first they had heard of them and there had been no formal explanation of them during Freshers’ Weeks.

An informal poll of just under 50 Emmanuel College undergraduates revealed that 54% of them did not know their college’s official policy on guests. Emmanuel’s policy is one of the more lenient ones across Cambridge, with undergraduate members being allowed to have one overnight guest at a time but for not more than three days out of any given seven and for no more than a total of 15 in each Normal Period of Residence. All overnight guests must also be registered as such in the porters’ lodge.

One college where there is no limit on how many nights in a term an undergraduate can have a guest to stay in their room is Homerton, however here a guest staying more than three nights must pay a fee for use of facilities.

In some places the rules on nights are more complex, for example at Trinity Hall the total cap is monthly, rather than termly: “Junior Members in College-owned accommodation are permitted to entertain guests in their rooms overnight for a maximum of three nights in any seven consecutive nights up to a maximum of ten nights in a calendar month.”

There were further discrepancies between colleges with some particularly unique idiosyncrasies.

At Gonville and Caius, official policy for 2017-18 states that “students resident in College are permitted to accommodate a guest overnight in their rooms for not more than three nights in any consecutive seven.”

St John’s College places particular emphasis on what nights of the week a guest might stay, with the policy preferring undergraduates to accommodate a guest in their rooms on a Friday or Saturday. Only if the college’s Junior Guest Rooms are full can an undergraduate house a guest in their rooms on other nights of the week.

At Christ’s, students’ guests are officially required to “sleep on the floor”.

Meanwhile, at Trinity guests “must be bona fide acquaintances and of a fixed abode”.

Information on accommodation rules is often challenging to find and buried deep within accommodation handbooks. Varsity had to ask four colleges directly for the information on guest policies as it was not accessible online.

Furthermore, Varsity’s Investigations team has uncovered discrepancies in the enforcement of overnight guest policies across and within different colleges.

Student testimony from colleges such as King’s, Emmanuel, and Gonville and Caius suggest a lax enforcement. A third year student at Caius told Varsity that she “didn’t know anything about Caius’ guest policy” and had only heard of it being enforced on one occasion. Another told the Investigations team that the college’s policy was both “unenforced and ridiculous”.

Meanwhile Trinity Hall was flagged as a college with a relatively strict enforcement of its guest policy. Similarly Corpus Christi, as Varsity reported in February, has garnered a reputation for an unreasonably strict enforcement of its overnight guest policy. Controversy was caused within the college when one Corpus student was punished with cleaning duty for having a guest to stay over regularly without signing them in.

Enforcement of overnight guest policies varies within colleges as much as between them. Reports Varsity received from both Trinity and Downing suggested that whilst some students felt the policies were enforced extremely harshly, others believed that they were not enforced at all.

One Downing undergraduate told Varsity that “Downing don’t care at all (even though the actual policies are harsh)”, whilst a recent graduate told a Varsity reporter that she was regularly “scowled down by the porters” when she went to visit her boyfriend last year, and that she had been informed that the college staff was spying on her, both in person and via CCTV.

Similarly at Trinity many students reported a lax enforcement of overnight policy but Varsity is also aware of incidences where this was not the case. One student told Varsity that one way in which he experienced the policy was via college staff routinely “making moralistic, cold, and utterly inappropriate comments” about his relationship with his partner, who was also a member of the college.

A spokesperson for Trinity College said “At the heart of the College’s policy on guests is safety and security. The policy is in accordance with health and safety requirements for the College community.”

Spotlight on reforming guest policies

Corpus Christi

In light of the incident in February, the rules for maximum number of nights were brought in line with the graduate rules, which allow guests for up to three nights a week and which don’t have a termly limit.It was agreed that the process for signing in a guest would be moved online to allow for greater flexibility and privacy.

Trinity Hall

In Easter term 2017, members of the JCR committee asked for clarification on the college’s guest policy from the Senior Tutor.The status quo at Trinity Hall was defended on the grounds of fire safety and the fairness of the room sharing agreements. It was deemed unfair to have a guest for more than three nights a week as this would stretch college facilities further than intended.

The Senior Tutor said that she would be open to “mutually suitable revisions” in the future.

The 2017-18 Student Handbook includes the development, ‘‘A student wishing to share their room with another Trinity Hall student who is also paying for accommodation elsewhere in College property may do so on the proviso that the Porters are notified of the extra person in the room.’’

Trinity Hall was repeatedly flagged as a college where the overnight guest policy is very strictly enforced.

The college’s official policy states that guests cannot enter the college after 11pm and must leave before the gate is closed at midnight. Guests must always be escorted and cannot stay for more than three nights out of any seven. The monthly maximum is ten nights.

One recent graduate told Varsity that “porters in certain accommodation blocks have been known to go on patrols of kitchens in evenings to see whether any students have had guests over”. He added that “most of the porters are lovely” but that a couple were reputed to be extremely strict and intimidating, to the extent that by the end of the year his girlfriend refused to come to the college when she knew the porters were there as she was “so intimidated by their presence”.

An undergraduate at a different college in a relationship with a Trinity Hall undergraduate reported to Varsity that every time he goes to Trinity Hall to visit her he is made to wait in the porter’s lodge to be collected by his partner.

Students reported that around busy periods such as Caesarian Sunday the policy was very strictly enforced. The college’s Senior Tutor told Varsity that “like most colleges, Trinity Hall has a guest policy for its students that has been designed to prioritise the safety of the college community, as well as to provide the best services and facilities for its members”