Dorm policies all have purpose, says Thayer Hall RD
For many students, some rules in the residence halls may seem petty and restrictive, but Russ Schneider, resident director of Thayer Hall, believes the rules are in place to benefit students.
“The purpose of the rules and guidelines is not to restrict, but rather they’re meant to protect,” said Schneider. “These rules in place might seem restrictive for someone who’s immature, but they’re meant to protect the students.”
Examples of these rules are the forbidding of lewd pictures and posters displayed in dormitories, the escort policy and minor gambling, which applies to fantasy football and NCAA basketball tournament brackets.
In regards to the lewd pictures and posters in dorms, the Code of Conduct states, “The possession of pornographic material or materials which may be considered as sexually offensive is strictly prohibited on university premises, or during university sanctioned activities wherever held.”
Chris Hardie, assistant dean of Student Services, said the policy is constantly under review and changes more frequently than most other policies.
“We try to come up with a policy that really has our students focused on what is clean and what’s not offensive,” Hardie said. “If somebody is offended by a picture, we feel like we should try and remove it. If a female is visiting in a male hall and there’s a poster of a woman in a bikini or something that’s inappropriate then it’s up to us to ask them to remove it or if they don’t, remove it ourselves.”
Schneider believes, from a Christian perspective, the pictures and posters are lewd and the way the people in the posters and pictures are portrayed-usually women-is not what Waynesburg University is about.
“Being a Christian university, we try to think deeply about everything we do. That goes from not just how we act, but where our eyes go and where we’re putting our hearts,” Schneider said. “So when we have those types of posters it’s taking us away from where our focus should be and it’s a distraction. Usually when posters are up like that, it’s not for beauty purposes, but for objectifying whoever is on the poster. We don’t teach that here. We teach to respect women and men, and we don’t need to put them up on the wall to stare at.”
In the Code of Conduct, the escort policy states students are responsible for the behavior of their guests, and if the guest is of the opposite sex, they must be escorted at all times by a resident of the building.
“For us, it’s important for us to know who’s in the buildings at all times,” Hardie said. “If someone who is considered your guest is out roaming the halls, we don’t know what they’re doing or that they’re your guest. We can’t hold anybody accountable unless we match him or her up with somebody that actually lives there. In most cases, it’s just a level of security and safety.”
Schneider said an example of why the escort policy is important is if he sees someone pass his room, he wants to know who that person is for the safety of the building and the occupants of the residence hall.
The gambling policy in the Code of Conduct states, “All forms of gambling are prohibited on campus. This includes playing cards, wagering on sports events, or other games played for money or items of value. While playing cards and other games of chance without exchanging items of value might be permissible, spending large amounts of time on such games may not be beneficial.”
In regards to minor cases of gambling on campus, Hardie said they are looked at on a case-by-case basis because of the different degrees of gambling the violation could be.
“In the terms of gambling, that sets people up for issues later in life that we as an educational institution don’t want to see our students go down a route,” Hardie said. “[Gambling] could be detrimental to them in the future.”
Hardie added that not too many gambling issues happen on campus, but student-athletes should be wary of gambling since it is against NCAA rules.
According to Hardie, most minor offenses are issued a warning the first time a student violates the policy.
“We do offer up some grace, and we want our students to learn from it and the best way to do that is to talk through the issue,” Hardie said. “If it’s a repeat issue or if there’s an immediate community impact then we usually bypass a warning, but most of the time it ends up being some type of reflection, community service or a fine.”
Schneider said enforcing these minor violations on students is difficult, but it’s for the benefit of the students.
“We’re teaching students here how to be a full person and we’re thinking holistically how to care for a person,” said Schneider.
Schneider also understands how difficult it is for the RAs, most of whom are the same age as the students they are in charge of.
“RA’s don’t do this because they want to enforce, but because they want to establish a relationship with the students,” Schneider said. “Hopefully they can establish that relationship enough that when it comes time to enforcing the policy [it will be easier].”
Hardie explained the difficulty of the job is why the RA staff is trained every year on how to deal with these issues while being fair and balanced.
“It’s not getting somebody in trouble, but an opportunity to talk through what happened,” Hardie said. “I realize it’s tough for them to watch their peers and address issues with them. On the flip side, the policies are in place for the community and to make sure the community living is the best, so I think if the student understands that it shouldn’t matter, that it’s another student their age enforcing the policy.”
RA of the fifth floor in Martin Hall and sophomore criminal justice major Josh Hausler understands a level of balance has to be achieved by RA’s to enforce minor rules in the dorms.
“Some rules are tougher to enforce than others and there are certain things that you need to take an outside perspective, but you can’t overlook things either,” Hausler said. “Things have to be addressed, but at the same time, we can’t jump to extremes on every issue.”