An Email Unsent

My school newspaper,

Now, I don’t view myself as an uptight person but upon reading the Friday edition of the newspaper, I have a lot of concerns that need to be addressed. As a published newspaper, when an article is written it needs to be accurate and represent the situation fairly– especially when the article is the one on the front cover.

The article I am referring to is the one written about the alcohol policy in the residence halls. Keep in mind that the hall policy and procedures works with the Student Code of Conduct and all local, state, and federal laws so very little is repeated that is already mentioned at any of the other sources.

1. The policy regarding alcohol is misrepresented twice in the article.

a) The first time the article states that an underaged person cannot be present while someone of age is drinking in the of-aged’s room. This is false statement– in the residence halls, a resident’s room is considered their private space so as long as they are following the law, they may engage as they please. As long as the underage resident is not drinking with the of-age resident, the of-age resident is free to drink in their own room. It should be mentioned however, that if such a situation is found, the underage student will be breathalyzed by a police officer to ensure that underage drinking was not occurring but this does not mean either student is in trouble for socializing or hanging out with alcohol present. This is, of course, underage drinking was taking place.

b) The second time the article states that an of-aged resident cannot have alcohol in their room if their roommate is underaged. Again, a false statement for many of the reasons that the first statement was wrong. As an example, parents are allowed to have alcohol in their house and drink it at their leisure while their children are under age. The law rests the burden on the underaged student to not engage in unlawful activities– not in the of-aged participants ensuring that underaged access is minimized.

2. In the colloquial sense, calling the residence halls a ‘dorm’ is acceptable but in a formalized setting such as a newspaper that represents our University, this word should be discarded for the one that residence life and dining services (RLDS) has stated is the official term to utilize: residence hall or hall for short. This change of word choice is important to showcase what values RLDS has in mind when discussing the living situation of students on campus: the halls are a place to build community and integrate into the college life– not just a place to sleep. If you want to call the halls 'dorm’ while talking with others, go for it– I’m not here to police your jargon.
Do not do so in an article.

3. The first statement in the article states that our campus has changed the policies for on campus living to allow drinking. This statement is very misguided since really, the policies have only changed in the on campus apartments so residents may drink in common spaces in their apartment instead of just their rooms. Regarding the halls, the policy that is in place currently is the one that was in affect in the upperclassmen hall. When RLDS made the decision to shut down that hall, they transferred this policy to the freshmen residence halls for the upperclassmen that could no longer choose to live in an upperclassmen hall but would still like to live in the halls. This issue is not as major of a concern but since I’m already writing to you about the article, I figured that I may as well include this too.

4. If you are going to write an article about the policies in the halls, interview at least one RA (resident assistant), RC (residence coordinator), AD (assistant or associate director), custodian or maintenance staff worker, RHA (residence hall association) member, or someone who works in RLDS. List of people interviewed: two past residents and 2 underage residents. This one-sidedness in the sources is most likely a reason that this article had so many issues– a person who understands the policies was not spoken to in order to have a better understanding of the situation. In addition, because of the sources used and the ones blatantly not used, a certain tone regarding hall policies and policy enforcement seeped into the article to showcase RLDS and RAs in a negatory light. When it comes to hall policies, RAs are not watch dogs: they are students employed by the University whose job consists of student advocacy and safety. When issues arise, it is on the students to inform RAs of the situation so that it can be dealt with– the job does not involve scouring the hall to find violations and reasons to call the police. It is a much larger concern that students are handling the transition from high school to college in a healthy manner and that roommate conflicts are resolved in a speedy fashion.

I hope that my email makes sense and it clearly lists my reasons for concern. I have lived on campus for four years and it is very discouraging when fellow students misrepresent what hall life entails out of ignorance. Several residents who have read your article have been bombarding RAs with questions regarding the policy since the article differs from what they understood the policy to be and it is very frustrating to have to explain to them that the policy is not as the article states. There are consequences to every action and when you chose an action, you must accept the results of that choice. I hope that in the future, this newspaper is held to a higher standard so it can be a newspaper that students may trust.

Thank you for your time,
Resident Assistant for two years