STU Residence Life Office says no to drinking in shared spaces

St. Thomas University residents have experienced a lot of commotion due to Residence Life’s new drinking policy.

This newly instated policy prohibits drinking in all public spaces in university residences including student lounges. This has of course created some tension between the Residence Life Office and student leaders in each residence. Harrington Hall’s president Bryce Miller, who is a second year student is strongly opposed to this policy:

“As a second year resident of Harrington Hall I had the opportunity to experience the drinking policy last year and have a kind of comparison basis on that to this year. I feel that last year although there was a policy that allowed drinking in lounges, it promoted safer drinking in the sense that it was in a space where everyone could be together. With the new drinking policy, its with a behind closed doors perspective”.

Community spaces in STU residences, like lounges for example, are still used for other activities like studying and watching movies. However, students still dearly remember the previous years when open drinking policies allowed for more students to huddle up in these spaces.

First year students have also been greatly affected by Residence Life’s new policy even though they never experienced the drinking policies from previous years. Freshman Matt Macbeth also thinks this years drinking policy is quite ineffective:

“I I think forcing people to drink in their rooms can cause a lot of problems because it gets people to have their privacy and it can be dangerous because if someone pushes past their limit and they’re alone there is no way you can help them, they could be passed out in their room and no one would know. So I think if you are in lounges I think its easier for your friends just to be polite”.

Now with the end of the year’s first semester just around the corner, residents are left with hope that the drinking policies in residence might change for the better.