What an Awesome Dorm Policy!
I can say that I had a great year in the dorms. I’m grateful that I had two caring, helpful, devoted and laidback resident assistants. I like the idea of having dorms on campus as well. It’s a great way to socialize with others and to make new friends. Certainly, it can be beneficial for new college students who are anxious to be away from home for the first time. College dorms aren’t that prevalent in my country, most of the students live in their own apartments. Depending on the size of the city it might be even harder to make new friends. My brother goes to college in Berlin and got to know most of his friends in his English and political science classes.
Although I agree with most of the ideas of the dorms there is just one policy I’m totally dissatisfied with and that concerns drinking in the dorms. Surely, many students can tell me that I shouldn’t bother. Why should I? I’m 22. Therefore I can legally drink here and don’t have to worry about shit. But I’m concerned about other students, my friends in particular, who are deprived of one of the greatest enjoyments a student can have in life. I’m sorry but I’m from Germany and I simply love drinking beer. I think it’s ridiculous that every time I want to go to a friend’s room in the dorms I have to cover my beer in some clothing or put it into my backpack because I don’t want to be written up by some RA’s. It’s even more ridiculous that underage students can be written up for drinking in their rooms. If they stay in their rooms and do their drinking there, how can they really harm someone besides themselves? A smart student wouldn’t drink himself to the point he could pass out without having friends around. These students are away from their parents for the first time and can finally have the feeling that they can do many things they couldn’t do at home. I mean, just give them a break. Those people who support the drinking policies of the dorms I have to ask: do you really think that every student wants to stay in his room, play his x-box, read a book or just watch some movies with friends on the weekend?
I honestly don’t understand what is wrong with drinking in the dorms. Not much can really happen as long as students remain responsible about it. That would include not drinking oneself to death, not sexually abusing someone, not demolishing furniture and things and so on. It could be enforced by some RA’s who can lecture people about drinking responsibly. Or maybe the hall director could address this issue during orientation and have a lecture about it as well. Or maybe some caring, smart parents finally have the mental capacity to get rid of their naivety that their sons or daughters would never touch a single drop of alcohol in college and give them some crucial advice. The reason why I’m responsible about drinking is that I have two great parents who gave me all the advice for drinking that I needed. Or why aren’t politicians finally cool and lower down the drinking age to 18? I still can’t get over the fact that you can join the army at the age of 18 and kill people but can’t drink in this country. Which one of the two is more damaging to our society, huh?
Yes, you can drink legally in your room and only in your room if you are 21. But I don’t know that many students who want to stay in the dorms until they turn 21. If you people are so concerned about preventing underage drinking in the dorms why aren’t you really cool and tell the hall directors to put security guards in front of the doors that check your bags for alcohol and ask for ID’s then? Why don’t you instruct them to put security cameras in every dorm room or to wiretap every dorm room? The current dorm drinking policies are even more ridiculous in the sense that many students don’t care and drink anyway. These drinking policies will certainly not limit drinking in the dorms or underage drinking. To me, it just represents America’s hypocrisy that you aren’t allowed to do this and that but end up doing it behind closed doors anyway. Oh, if you don’t agree, then explain to me how a conservative, God-worshipping country can be the biggest distributor of pornography in the world.
I’m very sorry if I offend any hall directors or other staff of the dorms by my stance on drinking policies in the residence halls, but I’m simply pointing out how things are. You don’t have to worry about me that much since I will be living off campus next semester. But I guess I have to be careful about what I write from now on after everything that happened and will happen when the last issue of The Flip Side was published, right?
Although I agree with most of the ideas of the dorms there is just one policy I’m totally dissatisfied with and that concerns drinking in the dorms. Surely, many students can tell me that I shouldn’t bother. Why should I? I’m 22. Therefore I can legally drink here and don’t have to worry about shit. But I’m concerned about other students, my friends in particular, who are deprived of one of the greatest enjoyments a student can have in life. I’m sorry but I’m from Germany and I simply love drinking beer. I think it’s ridiculous that every time I want to go to a friend’s room in the dorms I have to cover my beer in some clothing or put it into my backpack because I don’t want to be written up by some RA’s. It’s even more ridiculous that underage students can be written up for drinking in their rooms. If they stay in their rooms and do their drinking there, how can they really harm someone besides themselves? A smart student wouldn’t drink himself to the point he could pass out without having friends around. These students are away from their parents for the first time and can finally have the feeling that they can do many things they couldn’t do at home. I mean, just give them a break. Those people who support the drinking policies of the dorms I have to ask: do you really think that every student wants to stay in his room, play his x-box, read a book or just watch some movies with friends on the weekend?
I honestly don’t understand what is wrong with drinking in the dorms. Not much can really happen as long as students remain responsible about it. That would include not drinking oneself to death, not sexually abusing someone, not demolishing furniture and things and so on. It could be enforced by some RA’s who can lecture people about drinking responsibly. Or maybe the hall director could address this issue during orientation and have a lecture about it as well. Or maybe some caring, smart parents finally have the mental capacity to get rid of their naivety that their sons or daughters would never touch a single drop of alcohol in college and give them some crucial advice. The reason why I’m responsible about drinking is that I have two great parents who gave me all the advice for drinking that I needed. Or why aren’t politicians finally cool and lower down the drinking age to 18? I still can’t get over the fact that you can join the army at the age of 18 and kill people but can’t drink in this country. Which one of the two is more damaging to our society, huh?
Yes, you can drink legally in your room and only in your room if you are 21. But I don’t know that many students who want to stay in the dorms until they turn 21. If you people are so concerned about preventing underage drinking in the dorms why aren’t you really cool and tell the hall directors to put security guards in front of the doors that check your bags for alcohol and ask for ID’s then? Why don’t you instruct them to put security cameras in every dorm room or to wiretap every dorm room? The current dorm drinking policies are even more ridiculous in the sense that many students don’t care and drink anyway. These drinking policies will certainly not limit drinking in the dorms or underage drinking. To me, it just represents America’s hypocrisy that you aren’t allowed to do this and that but end up doing it behind closed doors anyway. Oh, if you don’t agree, then explain to me how a conservative, God-worshipping country can be the biggest distributor of pornography in the world.
I’m very sorry if I offend any hall directors or other staff of the dorms by my stance on drinking policies in the residence halls, but I’m simply pointing out how things are. You don’t have to worry about me that much since I will be living off campus next semester. But I guess I have to be careful about what I write from now on after everything that happened and will happen when the last issue of The Flip Side was published, right?