by Sarah Scire

Students registered more than 800 overnight guests for the week of inauguration, GW Housing Director Seth Weinshel said on Friday.

The number is a small representation of the 7,000 residents that were eligible to apply for guest spots under the special housing policy that requires students to pre-register all overnight visitors between Jan. 16 and 21. Applications for guests were due on Dec. 12 and students will be notified by Dec. 19 if their visitors have been approved.

An e-mail sent to all residents last week reminded students that the overnight policy would be strictly enforced for security reasons and that security will be monitoring the entrance of each building.

“Guests will be required to show a picture ID at building entry and may be asked to produce identification at various other times during the weekend if stopped by campus police or other local security,” according to an e-mail sent by GW Housing in November.

In a related but largely irrelevant note, University President Steven Knapp told the Faculty Senate on Friday that GW had received a unique suggestion regarding housing during inaugural week.

“There was a proposal from several sources that we close school for the week, and that way, make half of the semester’s tuition in the first week by renting our rooms at the exorbitant rates that you’ve been hearing about,” Knapp said on Friday. “We declined that proposal.”

Husna Kazmir contributed to this post.