Bongs away: Dorm parties and their consequences

A gas-mask bong sat on a cluttered dorm room table next to empty beer cans, a half-gallon of tequila and a two-foot tall, red hookah. The overwhelming smell of weed and alcohol filled the air as a dub-step beat pulsated in the background over deafening laughter.

After the week back at school, a group of Western students got together in the seventh stack of Ridgeway Gamma to pre-funk for a friend’s birthday party hosted off-campus.

For some Western students living in the dorms, partying can be just another carefree Saturday night. But for others, the night could end in a written citation from a resident adviser and a meeting with the local resident director.

“It sucks,” Western freshman Nikki Bond said. “It’s not horrible because you know you’re not getting reported to the police, but it still sucks.”

Bond was written up last fall. Two weeks after the incident she received an email from her resident director informing her they had to meet to talk. She then had to attend a $100 class with Alcohol and other Drug Consultation and Assessment Services.

The service's mission statement, according to their website, is to assist students in making its own informed choices about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use.

“The dorms are more strict than living at home with my parents,” Bond said.

In 2009, RAs at Western wrote up 473 on-campus discipline referrals for drug and alcohol related violations. About 430 were from residence halls, according to the latest Clery Report, a publication of annual crime statistics.

For students who are written up on a dorm violation, the severity of punishment is on a case-by-case basis, said John Purdie, associate director of Residence Life. Students with first time referrals generally must complete two classes with ADCAS or attend a marijuana risk reduction group.

Western’s disciplinary system puts emphasis on the education of the individual and personal responsibility, Purdie said.

“When a student must have a conduct meeting, it always begins on an educational level,” he said. “If the problem persists, it does have to become more punitive.”

Western student Jeremy Jensen said he knows the dorm disciplinary system well. Last fall, an RA accused Jensen and his roommate of selling marijuana in Buchanan Towers. They were immediately referred to Residence Life administrators.

“It was the first time we were disciplined­ — and all from hearsay,” Jensen said.

One week before the end of fall quarter, Residence Life administrators said Jensen and his roommate, John Ness, were guilty of selling marijuana. They were given a notice of eviction to be carried out over winter break. They appealed the decision and were happy when they were merely reassigned to the Ridgeway dorms, Jensen said.

“The system does have checks and balances,” Purdie said. “There is always multiple staff involved in every decision.”

When students choose to attend Western, they sign an agreement to follow the Student Rights and Responsibilities Code.

When they choose to live in the dorms, Purdie said they agree to the dorms conduct policies and procedures, and each one of us live under Washington state and federal law.

Typically, cases are not passed beyond residence halls to the Western or state judiciary system, but it depends on the severity of the allegations made, Purdie said.

University judicial officer Michael Schardein often handles the most severe cases at Western.

“We want (students) to realize their responsibility to Western,” Schardein said. “Every student is special and every case is serious.”

The majority of students who go through the process of appeals are rarely appealing allegations but rather the severity of the sanctions, said Shaw Gynan a Western professor of Spanish and linguistics.

Gynan serves as a faculty member on the student judicial appeal board.

“It’s not court, and we don’t deal with the same evidentiary that the justice system does,” Gynan said.

He said he is often saddened by a lot of the cases that come through the appeal board.

“Many of these cases are unfortunate and we deal with individuals with deeply disturbed backgrounds who need help dealing with these problems,” Gynan said. “We strive to maintain an environment conducive, not threatening, to the students as a whole.”

Jensen said he still disagrees with the strategies used by residence halls and university disciplinary systems.

“They think you’re a distressed individual that they need to reconstruct,” Jensen said.

In the end, all students living in residence halls have agreed to certain policies and procedures. Regardless of where ones morals lie, Purdie said the rules must be followed.

“Many of student’s real disagreements don’t come from the fact that a policy was broken,” Purdie said. “But whether what they did was right or wrong.”

                                                                                                          

I recently wrote this article for the Western Front. It seemed like I worked way too long on this piece, but I am really happy with the end result. It went to press Friday, April 8, 2011.

The Western Front