Charity Boxes

Throughout the year, various student organizations request to place a box or other receptacle in the lobbies to collect food, clothing, or other items for their favorite charity. While the House supports such efforts, they must be approved in advance by the House Dean or House Coordinator.

Cooking and Kitchens

The House has public kitchens on the third floor of Van Pelt and the first, second, and fourth floors in Class of 1925. Rules to follow:

Clean up after yourself.
Do not leave any dirty pots, pans, dishes and glasses in the sinks.
Items borrowed from the office should be cleaned and restored; any personal items left behind and unclean will be thrown away.
Do not take anyone else’s food/drink from the refrigerators. Please mark your own items, and be sure to remove them before they spoil.
Avoid excess smoke—be sure to open windows so that it can escape. If the room is smoky and you open the door to the hallway, the building’s fire alarms will sound. So keep doors shut and windows open.
Frying bacon is prohibited, due to numerous fire alarms throughout the years.

Dumbwaiters

Gregory does not have elevators, but there are dumbwaiters in each building to help carry items upstairs. Guidelines:

If others are waiting to use the dumbwaiter (such as during move-in), please do your best to work quickly (if safely).
Remember to close both the inner and outer doors of the dumbwaiter before sending it to your desired floor. If the inner door is left open, the dumbwaiter may get stuck.
When finished using the dumbwaiter, be sure to close both doors so that others can summon it to their floor.
Do not try to ride the dumbwaiter. You will almost certainly get stuck, and the process of extraction will be very lengthy and very, very expensive.
If the dumbwaiter is not working, report the situation to the info desk as soon as possible.

Fire Alarms

Students MUST vacate the building during fire alarms, whether unexpected or during scheduled fire drills. Use the nearest emergency exit doors. During scheduled “shelter in place” drills, students must relocate to the second floor hallway of their building. Tampering with fire alarms or fire safety equipment (including in-room smoke detectors) will result in fines and possible action from Philadelphia Police.

Furniture, Private

When you arrive, do a room inventory to make sure all assigned furniture is in the room. Facilities will not remove and store unwanted furniture, so be aware that if you intend to bring replacements, you need to arrange for both storage of the displaced items and their return before move-out at the end of the year.

Furniture, Public

Public furniture cannot be removed from its designated area. Residents will be charged the cost of returning the items to their proper spaces. Students should always leave furniture in its established configuration when departing a public space.

Laundry

There are laundry rooms on the first floor of each building. Simple rules:

Please allow others at least 10 minutes to collect their belongings from washers and dryers before carefully removing their items and placing them on the table.
Please do not use more than two machines at a time unless you are the only person using the laundry room.
If a washer or dryer does not work, tape a note to it and notify the info center (and fill out the form if you lost money).
Do not leave your clothes unattended for long. Clothes left on table will be donated to charity or discarded.

Lighting

Halogen lamps and candles are prohibited in all college houses. Both are fire hazards.

Locks

We recommend that all residents close and lock their front doors when no one is present, or residents are sleeping, showering or otherwise unavailable to monitor visitors. The individual bedroom doors (except in singles) cannot be locked from the outside. Students cannot replace these locks, or they will be fined by facilities services. Residents should work on establishing trust and ground rules amongst roommates.

Music Practice Rooms/Rehearsal Space

There are music practice rooms in the basement of each building. Note that no amplified music or drums are permitted—sound carries to the floor above—and that rehearsals cannot spill out into the wider basement area. The other basement rooms/spaces are NOT to be used for rehearsals or auditions; furniture should not be relocated, etc. Student groups monopolizing these spaces will be asked to leave: groups must request to use the practice room via the House Office. The music practice rooms are off limits after 11pm.

Pets

As per the Residential Handbook, the only pets permitted for undergraduate residents in the college houses are fish in containers less than 20 gallons. “Visiting” pets cannot enter the buildings.

Posting

Most Gregory bulletin boards are reserved for use of House staff. Public posting is permitted on the public bulletin boards inside the lobby doors of each building (in Van Pelt Manor, the public board is the one in the entryway; the board facing the front of the info desk, next to the soda and change machines, is NOT for public posting). House postings cannot be removed or obscured; ditto for unduplicated public postings that are not yet expired. Use pushpins; no staples or tape allowed. No “under door” soliciting is ever permitted.

Quad Room Swap

Quad rooms in Gregory feature bedrooms of differing sizes. At semester break, the students in the two smaller rooms have the right to swap spaces with residents in the larger rooms (a coin toss decides who receives the end or biggest room). If only one student in a small room wants to move, they have their choice of either larger bedroom. The decision to switch always rests with the students in the smaller rooms. The swap must be completed by the end of the first week of classes, second semester.

Quiet Hours

During Quiet Hours, residents and guests should not be playing loud music or otherwise making noise audible outside individual bedrooms. Piano use is also prohibited during Quiet Hours. During reading days and finals, these policies are in effect 24-7. During the rest of the year, Quiet Hours are: Sunday through Thursday: Midnight to 9 AM Friday and Saturday: 1 AM to 10 AM

Reservations

Gregory’s public spaces are reserved for the use of House events and gatherings. The Piano Lounge and basements are not reservable spaces, and student groups using these rooms will be asked to leave. The TV Lounge and Film Lounge are only available on occasion for film or language classes; interested parties should contact the House Coordinator. Guest Suite reservation policies can be found on the “Reserve the Guest Suite” page.

Smoking

Smoking is forbidden in Gregory, as it is in all college houses. The designated smoking area for the House is the covered concrete structure with benches near Class of 1925 and St. Mary’s Church. C’25 smokers must remain on the other side of Irving Street; Van Peltian smokers outside the far end of the bicycle rack. Please note there is a $50 fine for violating this policy.

Sprinklers

Both buildings are equipped with sprinklers, visible in every room. Do not strike or hang anything from the sprinkler heads; they are fragile and easily broken, and the amount of water is considerable and impacts numerous rooms and numerous floors.

Trash

Each building has a garbage chute on the east end of the hallway on floors 2,3 and 4. Please do not deposit large boxes (including pizza boxes!) in the chute, because it will clog. If the chute is backed up, immediately report the situation to the info center. Please be conscientious and do not overstuff the trash cans in the lobby and piano lounge, which are only emptied once a day. If you have full bags of trash, please bring them to the dumpsters next to the building instead of overloading the lobby cans. There are recycling receptacles on the first floor of each building.

Video Gaming

Please remember that the House wii and Xbox 360 are ONLY for use in the piano lounge. If other students are waiting to use the consoles or TV, please limit play to two hours. House events like study breaks or official TV watching groups always and immediately take priority over gaming. Residents must sign the Console Use Agreement form before they can borrow the 360 or wii.