Hall staffs confront policy
HELENA PAYNE
News Editor
The new alcohol policy changes have received varying reactions from residence hall staffs with the general agreement that many of Notre Dame's traditions and enforcement policies in question will remain.
"Student Affairs isn't doing this to be the evil, wicked witch of the west. There's a reason," said Alumni Hall's assistant rector Pat Costello, a law student who is also a Notre Dame undergraduate of the class of 1990.
Among the three major revisions in the policy — the ban of so-called "hard" alcohol, the allowance of tailgating for students of the legal drinking age, and the end of in-hall dances —the latter has been the more voiced concern of late. Alumni Hall, which hosts its "Wake" every year, is just one of the University's 27 dorms, to have traditions tied to their in-hall dances, also called SYRs. Many students perceive that the new policy will threaten the legacy of these SYRs.
"The Wake isn't cancelled," said Alumni's rector Father George Rozum.
He added that Student Affairs would allow the SYR tradition, which includes carrying Alumni's rector in a coffin around campus, to continue as long as students were more responsible about drinking. Also, the new rules require that the dance is located outside of the dorm, but Rozum said the hall staff would consider using the dorm's nearby courtyard as a new location.
"I think if our Wake had been on the line, it would've been a different story," said Rozum.
Nevertheless, both Rozum and Castello thought the policy was an effort of the University to look out for students' best interest.
"We're going to enforce it however Student Affairs tell us to," Rozum said adding that many students are unaware of the cases of students who go to the hospital each year because of alcohol abuse.
"If somebody were to be killed nobody would be outside protesting. Everyone would be at the Basilica in mass," said Castello.
Fellow rector of Farley Hall, Sister Carrine Etheridge said she was optimistic about the changes.
"To be realistic, when you have access to alcohol for five or six hours straight, rather than for a limited amount of time, I think it's a setup for being a problem," said Etheridge whose dorm also has an annually celebrated SYR, Pop Farley.
She said the residents in her dorm were disappointed and had a right to protest the changes, but she also pointed out what she thought were positive aspects to the policy.
"I think it might change the social scene a little, but the upside of this is that students are going to find a lot of interesting places to have dances," Etheridge said.
She said the University administration has expressed the willingness to open other campus venues for dances, and that they would also still allow in-hall social gatherings before the dance.
"This is probably going to mean that the students drink two hours before a dance instead of five or six," said Etheridge. "We can still have pre-parties and decorate."
A more critical group, the incoming resident assistants, also support the need for change, but have some criticism about the effects it will have on their experience during upcoming year. Because the revised alcohol policy was announced after the RAs had already been chosen for next year, those students were given an additional rule to enforce.
"It's just one more thing that's going to make my job tougher that I didn't anticipate," said junior Dan Zeller who will be an RA in St. Edward's Hall next year. "It's a new twist that maybe they should've thrown in before RAs were selected."
Zeller, like many current hall staff members, said he agreed that alcohol abuse had become a problem, but the revisions did not adequately solve it.
"I think it's unfair to the kids that are 21 years of age, but these are the same students that are providing the alcohol," said Zeller.
However, his chief complaint regarded what Zeller though was poor justification of the elimination of in-hall dances, or SYRs.
"Especially since they've already taken away hard alcohol, which seems to be the root of the problem, then why can't we have our SYRs?" said Zeller.
Junior Meghan Anderson of Howard Hall, another recently selected resident assistant for next year, had an indifferent view about the policy.
"I think it's important that students have a voice — but I would encourage students to look at issues that really matter," said Anderson, adding that she considered her role as an RA to be a friend, sister and mentor.
"I don't see the role of an RA as being one of snooping into people's rooms and monitoring people," Anderson said.
Current RAs said the alcohol policy will likely do little to curb all underage drinking in the residence hall rooms, but could offset some of the major alcohol-related emergencies.
"I really don't think it's going to affect the way I interact with residents and the way I go about enforcing the rules," said senior Yogeld Andre, an RA in Dillon Hall that will stay for a fifth year.
Andre said he initially thought the University was proposing a dry campus, but was immediately notified that it would not be the case. Andre's rector, Father Paul Doyle, read the Dillon staff a list of anticipated questions from Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Father Mark Poorman.
"The reason these laws were instituted is to cut back on the amount of students sent to St. Joseph [Hospital]," said Andre. "Hard alcohol has been involved in a disparate amount of cases."
Senior Tim O'Connor, also an RA in Dillon, said there were "pretty blatant problems that needed to be addressed" concerning Notre Dame and alcohol.
"I think the policy needed to be updated in some way," said O'Connor. "Anybody that says there wasn't an alcohol problem with Notre Dame students obviously wasn't paying much attention."
Still O'Connor, like Andre and the incoming RAs didn't expect the actual enforcement of the rules to change very much.
"I don't think it's going to be an exceptional change in the way things are done," O'Connor said.
All News Stories for Thursday, March 21, 2002
