House Policies

Our Housewide listserves are reserved for Gregory events only.  We receive countless requests to send out notices about campus organizations, performing arts groups, teams, charity drives, etc, and if we forwarded them all the email deluge would be counterproductive.  GAs and RAs are free to forward whatever they feel appropriate to their individual halls lists, however.

Gregory does not have elevators, but there are dumbwaiters in each building to help carry items upstairs. Guidelines:

1. If others are waiting to use the dumbwaiter (such as during move-in), please do your best to work quickly (if safely).
2. Remember to close both the inner and outer doors of the dumbwaiter before sending it to your desired floor. If the inner door is left open, the dumbwaiter may get stuck.
3. When finished using the dumbwaiter, be sure to close both doors so that others can summon it to their floor.
4. Do not try to ride the dumbwaiter. You will almost certainly get stuck, and the process of extraction will be very lengthy and very, very expensive.
5. If the dumbwaiter is not working, report the situation to the info desk as soon as possible.

Students MUST vacate the building during fire alarms, whether unexpected or during scheduled fire drills. Use the nearest emergency exit doors. During scheduled “shelter in place” drills, students must relocate to the second floor hallway of their building. Tampering with fire alarms or fire safety equipment (including in-room smoke detectors) will result in fines and possible action from Philadelphia Police.

Furniture, Private

When you arrive, do a room inventory to make sure all assigned furniture is in the room. Facilities will not remove and store unwanted furniture, so be aware that if you intend to bring replacements, you need to arrange for both storage of the displaced items and their return before move-out at the end of the year.

Furniture, Public

Public furniture cannot be removed from its designated area. Residents will be charged the cost of returning the items to their proper spaces. Students should always leave furniture in its established configuration when departing a public space.

There are laundry rooms on the first floor of Van Pelt and the basement level in Class of 1925. Simple BUT ESSENTIAL rules:

1. Please allow others at least 10 minutes to collect their belongings from washers and dryers before carefully removing their items and placing them on the table.
2. Please do not use more than two machines at a time unless you are the only person using the laundry room.
3. If a washer or dryer does not work, tape a note to it and notify the info center.
4. Do not leave your clothes unattended for more than 10 minutes, whether in the machines or on tables. Clothes left on table will be donated to charity or discarded.
5. Keep the laundry room doors closed.  Our laundry rooms are for residents only.

Halogen lamps and candles are prohibited in all college houses (except during religious services as cleared/announced by the House office). Both are fire hazards.

Throughout the year, various student organizations request to place a box or other receptacle in the lobbies to collect food, clothing, or other items for their favorite charity. While the House supports such efforts, they must be approved in advance by the House Director or House Coordinator.

The House has public kitchens on the first and third floors of Van Pelt and the first and second floors in Class of 1925.  See our cooking page for details on usage.

Doorstops

While we understand that some students would prefer to prop their doors open, our room doors are fire doors that must be kept closed for safety reasons. Thus doorstop use is prohibited.

Locks

We recommend that all residents always close their front doors, especially when no one is present, or residents are sleeping, showering or otherwise unavailable to monitor visitors. Within the rooms, residents should work on establishing trust and ground rules amongst roommates.

As per the Residential Handbook, the only pets permitted for undergraduate residents in the college houses are fish in containers less than 20 gallons. “Visiting” pets cannot enter the buildings.

Gregory bulletin boards are reserved for use of House staff. Public posting is not permitted.  House postings cannot be removed or obscured. No “under door” soliciting is ever permitted and will result in fines to students or organizations.

During Quiet Hours, residents and guests should not be playing loud music or otherwise making noise audible outside individual bedrooms. Piano use is also prohibited during Quiet Hours. During reading days and finals, these policies are in effect 24-7. During the rest of the year, Quiet Hours are: Sunday through Thursday: 11 PM to 9 AM; Friday and Saturday: 1 AM to 10 AM

Tampering with smoke detectors is a crime and of course forbidden in Gregory, as in all College Houses.  There is a campus-wide $250 fine for tampering with a smoke detector.

Smoking is forbidden in Gregory, as it is in all college houses, and will likely result in fines.

Both buildings are equipped with sprinklers, visible in every room. Do not strike or hang anything from the sprinkler heads; they are extremely fragile and easily broken, and the amount of water is considerable and impacts numerous rooms and numerous floors.

Each building has a garbage chute on the east end of the hallway on floors 2,3 and 4. Please do not deposit large boxes (including pizza boxes!) in the chute, because it will clog. If the chute is backed up, immediately report the situation to the info center. Please be conscientious and do not overstuff the trash cans in the lobbies/kitchens, which are only emptied once a day and not on weekends. If you have full bags of trash, please bring them to the dumpsters next to the building instead of overloading the lobby cans. There are recycling receptacles on the first floor and various lounges of each building.