2008 Woodie Awards
The Problem with the Office of ResLife...
One student's critique of the Residential Life Office's policies and procedures.
Nick Tanturri
Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: Opinions
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Many students see the office of Residential Life as the place to pick up their key or change their roommate, but many also feel that it is the office that polices the hallways in residence halls. If you read ResLife's mission statement it implies that their goal is to create an enriching environment that is focused on community building and aiding the students. However, if an examination is made of what actually happens in practice, it can be seen that their actions drastically contradict their credo.
What is ResLife's goal? It seems that the fundamental idea behind their practice is based on controlling students. This frame of mind among their staff is so prominent that they tend to forget many other fundamental ideas that should be the basis of a Residential Life program, such as student safety and adhering to federal law.
One example where student safety was completely neglected concerns an incident that occurred this year when ResLife staff found a sick individual vomiting in a bathroom stall. The staff member never alerted the student to his presence, but wrote him up for alcohol anyway because he knew who the student was, and assumed that he was sick from drinking because there was a party in close proximity.
The sick student's peer mentor was notified the next day that one of his students was written up, and was very confused after confronting the student and learning that he had no knowledge of being written up, or that a ResLife staff member saw him vomiting.
Further research done by the peer mentor and a Rollins staff member found that the student was recently diagnosed with mononucleosis, and was therefore the reason he was vomiting. ResLife was contacted with the student's health records and the judicial was destroyed.
This incident displays the negligence that occurs when ResLife values control and policy enforcement above student safety.
Why did the ResLife staff member never make his presence known to that sick student?
What is ResLife's goal? It seems that the fundamental idea behind their practice is based on controlling students. This frame of mind among their staff is so prominent that they tend to forget many other fundamental ideas that should be the basis of a Residential Life program, such as student safety and adhering to federal law.
One example where student safety was completely neglected concerns an incident that occurred this year when ResLife staff found a sick individual vomiting in a bathroom stall. The staff member never alerted the student to his presence, but wrote him up for alcohol anyway because he knew who the student was, and assumed that he was sick from drinking because there was a party in close proximity.
The sick student's peer mentor was notified the next day that one of his students was written up, and was very confused after confronting the student and learning that he had no knowledge of being written up, or that a ResLife staff member saw him vomiting.
Further research done by the peer mentor and a Rollins staff member found that the student was recently diagnosed with mononucleosis, and was therefore the reason he was vomiting. ResLife was contacted with the student's health records and the judicial was destroyed.
This incident displays the negligence that occurs when ResLife values control and policy enforcement above student safety.
Why did the ResLife staff member never make his presence known to that sick student?