BARLOW CENTER (2520 L Street NW) The Milton A. Barlow Center is a multi-use Church facility shared by the BYU Washington Seminar, the Church Office of Public and International Affairs, and the Seminaries and Institute Program. The top two floors have 22 apartments designated as residences for students participating on the Washington Seminar. It is located on the west end of Pennsylvania Avenue, near Georgetown. For a virtual tour of the facility, see the Washington Seminar website. Governance and Management Barlow Center policies and operations are governed by the Executive Oversight and Coordinating Committee (EOCC), chaired by an Area Authority Seventy and consisting of the Institute Director, the Office of Public and International Affairs Director, a counselor in the Washington, D.C. stake presidency, and the Washington Seminar Director. This committee meets three times each year (usually at the beginning of each semester). You may be invited to join the meeting for part or all of its business. The Memorandum of Understanding included in the appendix of this handbook is the governing document for the Barlow Center. It proscribes the space allocated to each of the tenants in the building and delineates how the building is to be used. Be sure to read and understand the document. The building is managed by a CES senior missionary couple who also provide support for the Institute program. They oversee the day-to-day operations of the Center and are responsible to coordinate any maintenance needs with the local Church facilities maintenance supervisor who is responsible for the upkeep and care of the building. Problems in the student apartments or any area of the Center should be reported to the missionary couple. There is also a full time custodian in the building. Be sure the students are attentive to any instructions they receive about the care of the building from the CES couple or from the custodian. Have a weekly meeting with the building managers to discuss any they may have about student conduct or cleanliness. Give them time in class to review any concerns. It is critical that all parties work cooperatively and support each other s programs. Students, in particular, need to understand that they are co-tenants in the building and must be respectful of the other building users. You should also be aware if any of the entities overstep their bounds and report the concern to the Washington Seminar Director. It will help if you are in the building at least one additional day each week in addition to Friday s class. Any conflicts that may arise between the entities are resolved by the EOCC. How the building is used has been carefully prescribed and agreed upon by the Church and university administration. Any use of the Center beyond what the governing body has designated will require EOCC approval. House Rules A copy of the house rules for students living at the Barlow Center is contained in the student handbook. They are part of the agreement that all students sign in order to live in the Center. It is important that you are very familiar with the rules and periodically review them with the students in class. 36
Space Allocation BYU has exclusive use of the upper two floors of the building to house married and single students on the Washington Seminar. The library-computer lab to the rear of the second floor is used primarily by our students. Staff from the other entities in the Center may also use it, but it is not available to Institute students, other Church members, or the general public. The second floor, with the exception of the library-computer lab, is designated exclusively for use by the Office of Public and International Affairs staff. Students are not to wander this floor, and under no condition are they permitted to use the conference room adjacent to the library-computer lab. The first floor is shared space, including three classrooms (controlled by the Institute program) and offices for the Institute Director and missionary couple. One office on this floor is designated for the Washington Seminar faculty director. It is equipped with a computer and printer owned by BYU. Students should be encouraged to use these classrooms as study space or for small group meetings. If they wish to use them for social (or similar) activities, they must be approved by the building manager. A multi-purpose room is in the basement that Washington Seminar shares with the Institute. It has a TV (with cable), DVD and VCR players, a ping pong table, other games and a warming kitchen. This is primarily recreation space for our students and others affiliated with the Institute Program. BYU students need to be reminded that they are to be gracious in sharing this area with others. Just off the foyer at the entrance of the building is the Great Room. This room seats approximately 130 and is designated for use by the Washington Seminar all day on Fridays and during weekday evenings for Institute classes. Use at other times is coordinated by the building manager. Students wishing to use this room for any activity other than studying must schedule it with the building manager. Near the bottom of the stairs off the foyer is a serving area. This room is for use by any of the Center s tenants for hosting special events. However, it is off limits to the students unless they have been invited to help with an activity in the building. Parking There are parking stalls immediately around the building, two of which are reserved for the Washington Seminar. One stall is for your car and the other is for any program guests, such as speakers for the Friday class. No parking is available to Washington Seminar students or their guests. At move-in and with permission of the building manager, students may temporarily park a car in one of the building stalls while they unload their luggage. Also with approval of the building manager, students not living at the Center may park their cars in one of the stalls during the Saturday excursions. However, under no circumstances, can a student car be left at the Center overnight. Caution the students that violation of these policies will result in their car being towed. 37
The other parking stalls are allocated to the Institute Program and to the Office of Public and International Affairs staff. No specific stalls are designated for any one entity, but each (including BYU) understand that they cannot occupy or have their guests occupy more than the allotted number of stalls. Keys You will be given master keys to the exterior and interior rooms of the building by the building manager upon your arrival. Carefully protect and do not loan them to students or others. Be sure to leave the keys in the faculty residence before you depart for home. If needed, your spouse may be given a key to enter the building and your office. However, the spouse is not given master keys. Security The safety of the building occupants and the security of the property is the highest priority. Students must be repeatedly instructed about being cautious and following all of the house rules. They may have a tendency to become casual about the policies, and so you should plan to review them regularly with students, particularly those regarding safety. The building is locked 24 hours/day, seven days/week. Entrance to the building is only possible for those who have a key or who are admitted by someone inside. The missionary couple who manages the Barlow Center does not live in the building. They are housed across the street in their own apartment. During business hours, either they or the Office of Public and International Affairs staff monitors traffic in and out of the building. However, between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. and on weekends, it is the responsibility of the student occupants to ensure that only authorized guests are admitted to the building. Overnight Guests Overnight guests are never permitted in the Barlow Center at any time under any circumstance. Occasionally there have been problems with students disregarding this rule and permitting friends or family to stay in their rooms. This is a very serious infraction and must be treated as such. It places the other students and the property at risk. A student who breaks this rule will forfeit his or her deposit and may be evicted from the Barlow Center. All guests must leave the Center by 11:00 p.m. unless they are attending an organized activity supervised by the faculty director or Institute Program. Guests may never be in student rooms or down the corridors in which the student apartments are located. Guests may only be entertained in the lounge and kitchen areas on the residential floors, the basement multi-purpose room and in the Great Room. Non-Washington Seminar Students Students not formally admitted to the Washington Seminar and enrolled for credit are not permitted to live in the Barlow Center there are no exceptions. 38
Faculty Director Duties You are responsible for the conduct of the students and Washington Seminar guests in the Barlow Center. You are also to ensure that the residential floors, library-computer lab, faculty office, and all the equipment and furnishings in them are well maintained. It is important that you work closely and cooperatively with all of the other tenants in the Center, particularly the building manager. Most of the policies governing student use of the Center are contained in the Student Handbook. You should be thoroughly familiar with and refer to them often during your assignment as faculty director. Check-in While most of the check-in for students arriving at the Center will be done by the building manager and the administrative assistant, you should be available to assist in the process as needed. Reporting Report any damage, break-ins, student misbehavior, conflicts with Barlow Center entities or other problems to the Washington Seminar Director. Apartment Inspections All student apartments should be inspected by you at least once during the semester to ensure that they are being well treated and that none of the related house rules are being broken. Be sure to look closely at the furnishings and make arrangements for needed repairs. Caution any of the students whose apartments are being mistreated and follow-up with a second or other subsequent inspection. You should always have one other person (the administrative assistant or building manager) with you when inspecting or entering student apartments. Check-out You are personally responsible to inspect all student apartments when residents depart the Center. In addition to their own apartment, students are also responsible to clean the kitchen and common areas on their floor. They need to leave the Center better than they found it. Coordinate all details related to check-out with the building manager. A check-out form outlining the specific areas and items that need to be cleaned is included on the Washington Seminar faculty and student websites. A form for each apartment must be signed by each occupant and you before the deposit will be refunded to the students. Note on the form if there are areas not adequately cleaned and/or damage to the apartment or any of its furnishings. An accurate record of the condition of the apartment is very important. Send the forms promptly to the Washington Seminar office. Following are suggestions for making your check-out process go smoothly: Keep in mind check-out can get pretty hectic because many of the students are catching shuttles or the metro to get to the airports. Print out a student checkout list to familiarize yourself with it. Midway through the semester, check the apartments and ask each occupant if there are any problems. 39
Have the administrative assistant provide a sign-up sheet for the chores that need to be done in the common areas prior to the departure. Check the common areas on both floors on a monthly basis, and if there are problems (piles of dirty dishes, dirty stove and oven, etc.) let the administrative assistant know so they can be remedied. A few weeks before checkout, remind the students to get rid of stuff they don t want to take home (to put it in the garbage or take it to the Salvation Army). Also remind them not to leave unopened boxes, bottles, and containers, etc. in the pantry. GARBAGE on the last days is a problem; all garbage has to be in sealed garbage bags. Encourage students to start getting rid of their garbage early. Get six large boxes (three for each floor; Costco is a great place to find boxes) for students to place dishes, silverware, and unopened food items. The oven on each floor should be cleaned a day or two before the departure. Make sure students clean under metal plates under burners, area under stove top, and drawer under oven. Pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and other items in the kitchens need to be cleaned, scoured, polished, dried, and stacked neatly in the cupboards and drawers. Remind the students to DEFROST their refrigerators the night before they leave, or at least in the morning if they leave in the afternoon. Caution them about how to do this appropriately so the refrigerator isn t damaged. In the married apartments make sure students clean metal plates and under stove top (it lifts up). When checking students out, make sure to check closets and ask them if there are any problems or if anything is broken or not working. Have the administrative assistant prepare a list of the departure dates and approximate checkout time. If one roommate leaves before the other one, the remaining one is responsible to leave everything clean. (On the checkout sheet they can put an initial before the chores each student has to complete before leaving.) Computers Four computers and a network printer are provided in the library-computer lab for Washington Seminar students to use. Wi-Fi is available throughout the building. Each apartment has a data port. Students are encouraged to bring an Ethernet cable in case the Wi-Fi goes down. The lab computers and the central server are managed by BYU. Any problems or failure of service should be reported to the Washington Seminar office. BYU does not provide support for individual student computers. Students who wish to access the Internet from their apartments must sign an agreement (a copy is available on the Washington Seminar faculty and student websites.) You should download the form and be familiar with it. Students Living Away from the Barlow Center Washington Seminar students are not required to live in the Barlow Center. Some will choose to live with family or friends in the area. The policy for students living away from the Center is outlined in the Washington Seminar Student Handbook. These students are given a key that will admit them to the main door of the Barlow Center, but does not give them access to the residential floors. 40