With Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day comes a flood of visitors to campus. In a press conference March 3, representatives from the Champaign Police Department, the city of Champaign and the University Police Department said they are expecting upwards of 18,000 visitors from out of town for Unofficial 2010.

These visitors may face the challenge of finding somewhere to stay, as many dorms enforce special rules for this weekend.

“I just got kicked out of the resident halls,” said Paul Mowbry, freshman from Ohio State University.

Season Crawford, desk clerk at Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls and junior in AHS, said for all University dorms, no guests are allowed from Thursday at 7 p.m. until Sunday.

Crawford said depending on the dorm, residence advisors will be doing rounds every one to two hours. She said she does not anticipate many problems.

“I think people tend to not participate inside the residence halls,” Crawford said.

Jessica Hatton, desk clerk at Illinois Street Residence Halls and sophomore in Engineering, said all doors will be locked starting Thursday night and continuing throughout the weekend. Residents will not be allowed to swipe in guests for dinner.

At private certified housing, the rules are quite different.

Newman Hall is not changing its policies on visitors for the weekend, but plans to lock its doors early.

“We’ve had floor meetings and talked about responsibility,” said Tristan Pisarczyk, director of operations for Newman.

He said resident advisors will be doing extra rounds and that there is a zero tolerance policy if anyone is found with alcohol in the dorm. Newman will lock its doors starting after 2 p.m. Friday, Pisarczyk added.

He said Newman does not usually experience a dramatic increase in visitors during Unofficial.

“We don’t see a big influx of people or problems within the last few years,” he said.

While not as strict as University Housing’s rules for the weekend, Bromley Hall’s policy includes more restrictions than Newman Hall’s policy does. Ryan Hilde, resident director at Bromley, said the normal policy for overnight guests is each resident can check in two people each night after giving up his or her Bromley identification card; check-in normally starts at midnight.

However, starting Thursday at 10 p.m., each resident can only check in one guest for the whole weekend. At check-in, the guest must leave a photo ID, Hilde said.

The back door will be locked starting Thursday at 9 p.m., he added.

The Tenant Union does not know of any leases that specifically limit the number of visitors who can stay overnight at local apartments, said Housing Counselor Nancy Dietrich.

“Sometimes, you see a lease that says you can’t have more than about 12 people an apartment at one time,” she said.

This clause is seen sometimes in leases from Smith Apartments, said Esther Patt, director of the Tenant Union.