By Frances Walton ’26 and Nawal Hassan ’27
Editor-in-Chief and Design Editor
Scripps College’s Dean of Students (DOS) Office added an uncommunicated and widely unknown new code severely limiting students’ ability to decorate their exterior-facing windows or balconies to the 2024-2025 Code of Conduct that left students questioning Scripps’ reasoning and drawing connections to the dwindling forms of college-sanctioned student expression on campus.
After releasing the first 2024-2025 Guide to Student Life and Code of Conduct (GTSL/COC), DOS updated the individual GTSL and COC documents again Aug. 20. The sentence, “Substantive changes to the GTSL+COC will be announced via email to the student community as promptly as possible following implementation,” was removed. Code “4.40: Housing Decor and Posting Policy,” was added.
The office’s removal of the sentence was “an error that will be corrected,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Sha Bradley in an email to The Scripps Voice sent through the Office of Marketing and Communications.
The sentence, which formerly appeared in the middle of the introductory paragraph, was removed Aug. 20. Since at least 2022, the sentence has existed in every edition of the GTSL and COC.
“In two separate documents, both with a sentence removed from the middle of a paragraph … To me, it feels like a pointed decision to have done that,” a senior Scripps student, who wished to be identified by their initials A.Y. due to concerns of retribution from the DOS, said.
When pressed by TSV on the lack of communication with Scripps students, Bradley said, “The Dean of Students Office will send another communication highlighting substantive changes.”
As of Wednesday evening, the Scripps student list has not been explicitly notified of changes. None of the six students interviewed by TSV, three of whom had violated Code 4.40, were aware of these changes nor contacted by the administration about possible disciplinary actions.
One substantive change to the Code of Conduct is Code 4.40. Couched between stipulations on adhesives used to put up posters were the lines:
“No wires, blankets, clothes, banners, flags, signs, posters, or other items may hang from, on, out of, or block the windows of the residential spaces, including entrance and exit doors.”
“Students may not hang anything out of their windows or place objects on exterior windowsills or balconies.”
“Public facing exterior doors may not have any postings, signs, or other items on the door.”
“Items posted in all other locations within or outside of residence halls, including but not limited to windows, hallways, stairwells, and doors, will be removed and recycled. Signs which violate any of these regulations will be removed.”
Code 4.40 also stipulated that window postings do not violate the code if they take up no more than 25 percent of the window and face inward.
“Students do not participate in the GTSL and CoC update processes,” Bradley wrote. “However, I’m eager to gather student input to make both documents even more inclusive and student-friendly.”
However, Scripps students, formerly unaware of any changes and therefore unable to give input on the GTSL/COC, expressed confusion regarding whether these changes are student or community-friendly.
“When I think about Scripps community, [I think of] being able to voice your opinion … so I’m a little bit surprised [about the new code],” Bryn Weigel-Murphy ’28 said. “It’s kind of the opposite of what I thought Scripps community was.”
To many students, their residential halls, including balconies and windows, are a site of connection, expression, and vibrancy. “I think everybody who’s seen our flag on our balcony, at least to me, says, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so cool,’” Sitara Putrevu ’28 said.
Silent changes to the Scripps GTSL/COC and the current political atmosphere surrounding Palestine on campus have made some students skeptical of the reasoning behind changing the codes.
“I understand that these rules exist sometimes because it is Scripps property,” Emmy Anderson ’26 said. “However, given recent events with the Palestinian genocide in Gaza, it does feel incredibly targeted, and I am not pleased.”
Students also flagged the code’s focus on the exteriors of Scripps residential halls to suggest Scripps College’s attitude toward student expression. “I’m sure the Board of Trustees doesn’t want people on tours staring at a [silly] flag when they’re touring campus,” a Scripps student said, under the condition of anonymity due to currently infringing on code 4.40. “And probably, definitely not a Palestinian flag.”
While other 5Cs’ GTSL/COC equivalents include regulations regarding balcony and residence decor, Scripps’ specific rules on “exterior facing doors” and decor that covers “more than 25 percent” of a window stand out in comparison. For instance, Pitzer’s COC requires students to get approval before hanging items on balconies. Pomona limits posting categories, stating students can’t install “outdoor decorations, tarps, flags, canopies, lofts, etc.”
“I think it’s just weird because I don’t know why Scripps tries so hard to curb forms of expression that flow more freely on other campuses,” the anonymous student said.
Fellow students expressed similar sentiments about the college’s repressive atmosphere, which the administration created. When asked about possible explanations for the abrupt changes to the COC before this school year, Putrevu noted Scripps’s perhaps misdirected focus on “[the campus’] aesthetic and how it looks, all cohesive together.”
A lack of transparency, the new dorm posting policies, and DOS’s order to The Motley to take down their Palestinian flag raise more significant concerns about student expression going into the new school year.
“The College wants to present a certain face of what their student body believes and how they show themselves believing that,” Anderson said. “I think it’s really convenient for the administration to be able to say that we are an institution that is socially responsible and a student body that works to make change, without actually having to do the legwork of having those uncomfortable conversations.”
Illustration Courtesy: Anna Grez ’27
