http://onwardstate.com/2012/02/02/residence-life-limits-overnight-guests-for-state-pattys-weekend/
I find it interesting that Penn State officials have gone to great efforts to restrict drinking for State Patty's Day. This article really caught my eye for many reasons. The first sentence describes that Residence Life has "joined the fight" against State Patty's Day. Immediately it encourages negative emotions against this "holiday." It goes further to describe the measures that Residence Life is taking against any drinking activities.
I think that Residence Life did not approach this subject correctly. First and foremost, they said that on-campus residences all received this e-mail. I, along with my friends on my floor, have never received said e-mail. This creates an ethos of dishonesty to me. How can I trust the rest of this article, or even the subject, if they error on their information? They go on and describe how disciplinary action will be taken if residence's rooms have more than one guest over on the weekend of February 24-25. This seems irrational and extreme to me. Won't this cause roommates to fight over who can and who cannot have a guest? In addition, this stipulation was never mentioned in the contract that residences agreed to. The contract allowed more guests. That being said, I cannot think of any practical, enforceable ways that Coordinators can punish students.
I cannot think of a policy that could be less enforceable than limiting guests. Unless RAs evaluate every single room multiple times, how can they truly figure out if more than one guest is going to stay over in any specific room? All of these questions leave myself, and I am sure many others, very confused, which decreases the legitimacy and ethos of the policy.
In the end, I believe that going to all of these great lengths has actually had ill effects on the university. By recognizing this "holiday," they acknowledge that the student body drinks...excessively. But the fact that they are taking precautions for this day alone, it shows one of two things: 1. they are naive about every other weekend or 2. they overlook the drinking that happens on the other weekends. They allow parties on other weekends. They disregard the excessive drinking on other days. It destroys their ethos. Students will not take them seriously. They are claiming to try to cut down the drinking, yet are only focusing on one day. What about the other 364?
I actually got this email and when I was reading it I questioned who determined which roomate got the guest as well. It didn't make any sense to me. Its like they are encouraging the students to disobey. It is very hypocritical of them to single out this one weekend and ignore the rest. They should have just left it alone.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the officials have gone overboard with all these threats. I suppose in lieu of recent events, they do not want another scandal on the front cover of every newspaper out there. Penn State is trying to stay strong and united at a time when despair and uncertainty fill the air. However, maybe a helping hand instead of a fist would help their message get through better. It should be a day to relax and celebrate; there will always be those drunks out there no matter what. Maybe just a couple warnings, hidden throughout a kind message, telling people to actually enjoy themselves would be more suitable. It’s college! There should be room to grow and reach out, and not constantly feel like we’re still in high school having the principal telling us our shorts are too short.
ReplyDeleteI totally and completely agree with you, and I think you did a great job in exploring the failure of ethos and the character of the university. As a freshmen, I remember my own orientation here at Penn State and how they continuously stated that we now have a "dry campus" and how "if you drink you will be caught." Looking back, I can't take the ethos of the university seriously because my first weekend here they had lines organized for students to get on the buses, attend parties, and allow drunk students on the bus. Months later, and their deciding to enforce rules on a holiday where drinking is expected. In my opinion it's just to late to try and change the policies when they weren't enforced from before, and the ethos of the situation has already been ruined.
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