This is the real world – almost.In an effort to make living on campus more reflective of life outside TCU, the new residence halls will have a 24-hour visitation policy, an administrator said.

The visitation policy was adopted after considering the maturity level and social and study habits of students, said Craig Allen, director of residential services.

Allen emphasized that the visitation policy will allow visitors, not additional roommates, and said administrators aren’t endorsing intimate relationships with live-in partners.

Allen said some parents have voiced concerns about the policy. He referred to an e-mail from a parent concerned that TCU, being a Christian university, was sending a bad message.

Terry Pollard, a parent of an incoming freshman, disagreed.

Pollard said she doesn’t have a problem with the policy as she had 24-hour visitation when she was a student at the University of Texas at Austin.

She said students are old enough to make their own decisions, and that college is the time parents must trust their children to make good choices.

Dan Lienemann, a resident assistant in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community, said there haven’t been many problems in the on-campus apartments, which have a 24-hour visitation policy, and therefore doesn’t foresee any problems in the new buildings.

Allen said the policy will require different methods of enforcement, but won’t be any more difficult than enforcing rules in other residence halls.

The resident assistants will have to work harder to get to know each of their residents so they can be sure of who lives in the building and who doesn’t, Allen said.

He said aside from observation, the only way a resident assistant will know of someone violating the visitation policy is if a resident tells them.

The policy states that students who have visitors staying in their rooms for more than two consecutive days will have to get approval from their hall director.

Lienemann said most of the time, if there’s an issue with visitors overstaying their welcome, a roommate will inform the resident assistant to get the issue resolved.

He said most couples who choose to live together do so off-campus.

Allen said the policy is meant to treat students like adults, but students must act accordingly.

He said visitation policies will continue to change as some residence halls will become coed.