By Rehema Namukose

Campus Eye
IF you thought curfew only happened at home, think again! Even campus has curfew. You have to beat it, otherwise you would have many sleep-overs or dog bites every other time you come back to your hall of residence or hostel past midnight.

I know vacists cannot wait to be free of restrictions at home. They imagine they will have a blast at university — hanging out with the girls every evening, drink-ups, going to club whenever they please, and so on.

Many plan to stay in hostels because they believe they are not as restrictive as halls. However, those hostels they are so eager to join have restrictions too, especially the all-girl hostels. For instance, one needs a valid ID to get into some of these hostels.

In fact, in many of these hostels, one is not allowed in after 10:00pm, whether they have an ID or not and regardless of whether they are male or female.

Visitors are required to leave by midnight! It is even worse for guys visiting chics. In addition to this, most hostels have a strict no sleep-over policy. That means that a visitor cannot easily sleep in a resident’s room.

By the way, most hostels are serious about these rules. I know cases of students who have been cautioned and in some instances, thrown out of the hostels for breaking these regulations.

Now, there is this mentality that it is easy to get away with murder in hostels as long as you have the money. After all, the askaris are money-hungry and as long as you can slide them a grand, you will go scot-free.

That might be the case in some places, but there are many no-nonsense watchmen with attitude. Want to reach some kind of understanding with him? How about you talk to the dog…yes, the dog!

When it clocks midnight in some girls’ hostels, askaris release dogs. Now, if you are a visitor, that is it. Forget it. If you are a resident, there is still a menacing chance you could be bitten by those canines.

So, want total freedom at university? Whichever university you go to, rent a house. If you want to live within the available structures, absolute freedom is nothing but a myth.