EVAN CARAVELLI/Arizona Daily Wildcat President of Sophos Sophomore Honorary, Alok Patki sits in an empty meeting room in Yuma Residence Hall Thursday afternoon. According to UA policy, residence halls cannot be used as meeting places for groups, clubs or other organizations not involved with the residence hall.

Student clubs and organizations not affiliated with residence halls are no longer allowed to meet in hall common spaces, according to a new rule adopted by Residence Life.

In order to keep groups from taking over student space and disrupting residents, clubs and organizations are no longer allowed to meet on a weekly basis in semi-public spaces like study lounges, lobbies and other meeting spaces in residence halls on campus.

"Some groups monopolize space, and if they meet on a weekly basis, it prevents other groups from being able to meet," said Patrick Call, associate director of Residence Life.

The rule applies to all groups that do not contain members who all live in the residence hall where they meet.

The groups that will be ejected include clubs, honoraries, greek organizations and Bible study groups.

"If the rule is for any group that is not Res Life-related, then I don't have a need to feel offended. If it were prejudiced against religious groups particularly, that would be a different story," said Donovan Davis, a biosystems engineering sophomore and a member of Faith Christian Church, which meets regularly on campus.

The rule does not apply to hall government meetings, recycling meetings, hall committees or anything connected with the hall, Call said.

Residence Life is allowing these groups to hold one meeting per semester as a compromise.

So far, Call said he hasn't received any complaints, and that the groups are pretty compliant once they realize exactly what the rule entails.

Alok Patki, a biochemistry sophomore and the president of Sophos Sophomore Honorary, a group that used to meet regularly in Yuma Residence Hall, is not happy about the new rule.

"It is a little unnecessary. (Sophos is) not a disruptive club, and they should have put it all to the discretion of the hall director. We haven't thought about where our 36-member group will meet in the future," said Patki, a Yuma resident.

John Snowberger, an undeclared freshman and resident of Yuma, said clubs do not take over community spaces enough to justify the new rule.

"The spaces are vacant most of the time. I don't know why we can't use them to hold our meetings. I can see that it's a community area, but we have so many that we aren't invading that much," said Snowberger, president of Primus Freshman Honorary.

"We have not gotten any complaints, and if a resident wanted to come sit in on the meeting, we would be more than happy to have them."

But Residence Life officials said they want the new rule to cut down on people who come into the halls to recruit members.

"We don't allow anyone to come into the hall to recruit, but if we let them in for their meetings, they do try to recruit," said Doug Copeland, Yuma hall director.

Residence Life has not received any complaints about harassment or recruitment in the halls, but the leaders of these groups are not always aware of what their members are doing in the halls, Call said.

Matt Gebert, Yavapai Residence Hall desk assistant and mechanical engineering sophomore, noticed the presence of solicitation in the hall and hopes this rule will help stop it.

"I get mad at people wandering and soliciting. It creates definite security issues," Gebert said. "Nobody wants to be solicited in the building."