With the 30th annual Mardi Gras celebration in Soulard approaching, students are looking forward to a Saturday filled with parties, parades, bars and beads. But for Saint Louis University students, the party will end after leaving Soulard. SLU’s Housing and Residential Life is cracking down on its guest policy that weekend, keeping an extra watch on students. On Mardi Gras weekend, Res Life is only allowing one guest per student for security reasons.

“[The policy] is to ensure the safety and wellbeing collectively across campus,” said Associate Director of Residential Education James Parker.

Res Life is also requiring another new step for registering guests. By Wednesday, Feb. 18, guests must be registered by 5 p.m. This is the case whether the guest is staying Thursday, Friday or Saturday. On the sheet, the host must provide his or her name, the guest’s name, the days the guest will be staying and the host’s phone number in case there is a problem. This policy applies to every dorm and apartment building on campus, unlike last year.

“Last year, it was the policy in certain buildings, just freshmen I believe,” Parker said. “We’re just trying to make it consistent throughout non-first year buildings . We want consistency to ensure safety and the well-being of the students.”

“Previous years, it’s been a relatively huge event with special policies . but this is the first year that we’ve made a policy campus wide,” said Alvin Sturdivant, director of housing and residential life.

The change is due to previous problems around campus, according to Parker.

“Two years ago was really bad,” he said. “St. Louis Mardi Gras had a lot of national attendance due to [Hurricane] Katrina in New Orleans . Most problems are not with SLU students, but guests and non-students coming back from Soulard.”

The policy still holds for SLU students who want to stay in a different dorm or apartment on campus.

“Even though they’re students, the policy is still the same,” Parker said. “The problem is students trying to take their friends back to their rooms because they’re too drunk and they don’t have the proper accommodations. We would rather them go back to their dorms where we can find the proper resources they need.”

The only exceptions are students hosting presidential scholars that weekend.

Res life is not sure if this will be a permanent policy on Mardi Gras weekend-this is a test run.

Only one student complained in an e-mail to Parker, but many voiced their opinions outside of Res Life.

“[It’s] a little bit overboard,” sophomore Elizabeth Milera said. “They’re just assuming bad things will be happening and things will be out of control and wild.”