Hotel Apologizes for Barring Students From Front Door

Students at North Carolina Central University have received a public apology from the operators of the Hilton Durham hotel for a policy that the university found offensive: Students were barred from using the hotel's front entrance as part of a contract the students were given to sign.

In addition to issuing a public apology, the hotel agreed to grant a scholarship to an in-state student and to create internship positions with Interstate Hotels and Resorts, which operates the facility.

The university arranged with four hotels and five apartment properties to house 900 students for the school year until repairs are made to dorms damaged by mold.

The university held a press conference on Aug. 29 at the hotel, where the hotel managers and operators openly apologized.

The hotel revised the contract, omitting the language requiring students to use only the side and rear doors.

In addition, the hotel agreed to grant a four-year scholarship to an in-state student and to create five student internship positions with Interstate Hotels and Resorts, which operates the facility.

The university deal with the Hilton Durham and the other properties resulted from the closing in August of two residence halls built in 1999 so that the university could repair black mold damage possibly caused by the steam heating system and leaks.

"Our intent in asking the students to use a separate entrance was to help ensure the safety and comfort of all our guests," Robert J. Morse, president of operations at Interstate, said in a news release. He acknowledged that the general manager of the hotel "used a poor choice of words when creating the agreement."

"He focused on the safety issue without considering how the words might be interpreted," Morse said in the release.

The university had not received copies of the policy before the students signed them.

NCCU Chancellor James H. Ammons told the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper, which disclosed the existence of the contracts Aug. 27, that the policy was unconscionable.

"Our students and the entire NCCU family and all of the people who value human civil rights were offended," Ammons said in a release.

The policy was not issued at any of the other sites used by the university.

Marie Neely, a senior broadcast media communications major living at the hotel, said she was insulted.

"I pay to stay there, so I'm going to go out the front door," she said. Neely said she didn't read the contract well before signing it, but said that one of the hotel officials came to the students' hall meeting to remind them not to use the front entrances.

Neely also said the hotel shuttle taking students to and from school had dropped them off at the back door, but that that has changed.

Jennifer Wilder, the university’s residential life director, said she thinks the apology was well accepted by the university and students, many of whom attended the news conference.

As an additional act, the hotel joined North Carolina Central’s Business and Industry Cluster Program, which develops long-term partnerships between the university and corporations to find mutually beneficial ways to support the university and provide the companies with trained students that they may recruit.

Saria M. Canady is a student at North Carolina Central University who writes for The Campus Echo.

Posted Sept. 5, 2003