To our first years, welcome! To our returners, welcome back! I hope everyone on campus is adjusting well to life back on campus, specifically those of you living in residences.
After almost two years of being cooped up in our homes, it’s understandable that many of us want to let loose and party. However, that does not justify being overly irresponsible, especially while partying on campus.
To start with, having a good time should never conflict with safety. It’s all well and good to have a few drinks, but getting wasted at a party not only puts yourself in danger, it puts an unreasonable burden on your friends to take care of you. If you are inebriated to the point that you are a danger to yourself or worse, to others, then perhaps reevaluate how you enjoy yourself.
Another consideration that should be taken into account when partying is how it affects our community. We should not tolerate an atmosphere in which people are afraid to go back to their dorms because of out of control parties. Neither should we put undue financial burden on our community to pay for repairs because we damage property (I’m looking at you Cutten and Dennis). In order to get along and foster a peaceful community, we have to look out for our neighbors.
Speaking of trying to keep our community safe, Residence Assistants and Campus Patrol expends a lot of time and energy to do just that. These are students just like yourselves who have the best interests of the student population at heart. Believe it or not, they do have better things to do than argue with you all night. So when they tell you to do something, please do it. It’s that easy.
If you are a part of this problem, I encourage you to think about how your actions affect those that live around you, and why your fun should take precedence over campus safety. If you are not a part of this problem, as most of us are, don’t be afraid to speak out. The responsibility is on us to make it clear that violent, overly aggressive, behavior has no place in our community. This is our home, for better or worse, and we need to take care of it.
If you have stories of party-induced aggressive or violent behavior on residence, please reach out to us at: [email protected]
If you see something dangerous happening on campus, don’t hesitate to call Safety & Security at: 902-585-1103
