Resident assistance

Resident Assistants have a tough job. Not only are they saddled with tedious administrative paperwork duties and periodically confined to their rooms for the night, but they also must strike a delicate balance between counselor and police officer. RAs are in the awkward position of trying to be friends to those in their care, and caring for them by enforcing the rules. Residents can make this job easier or harder.

The problem is clearest when it comes to alcohol. This year, the University changed its alcohol policy, including the duty of the RAs in reporting violations. Previously, they had the discretion to report or not report offenses, but now they must document absolutely everything. If a minor is involved with alcohol in any way, it is written down.

Many RAs were upset with this new policy, and the administration drew a lot of heat because of it. Of course, the law behind the policy is not anything new. It has been illegal for quite some time for someone under 21 to drink alcohol.

I do not think any RA expects the University to promote illegal drinking, or even allow it to slip under the radar. I think what frustrates RAs most is not what they hear from the University, but what they hear from their residents.

This is what they hear: "Look, you know we're going to drink. Now, you can either be cool about it, and we'll let you be our friend and all, or you could be 'That Guy' and we'll just go drink elsewhere and probably go over our limits and hide any drinking problem from you. So, you want us to be safe in our dorm or out getting trashed in Medford?"

Are these fair options? Is this a real "choice" you are giving your RA if you say this? What should a woman make of a husband, if he came to her and said, "Baby, you know I'm going to cheat on you. So you can either go and buy me pornography, or I'll just go behind your back with one of the chicks at the office." Should the woman just buckle down and give in to the "lesser of two evils?" For you guys, consider if your wife said to you, "Honey, you know you cannot fulfill my needs. So, either pick one of your own friends for me to see on the side, or I'll just hire my own." Should the man just roll over and accept the inevitable?

No. These are false choices. You do not have to choose one of them. The answer is not one or the other -- it is neither. The only reason you are able to propose the choices is if you first deny that husbands and wives are supposed to love and stay faithful only to each other. You must assume from the outset that cheating is an unavoidable law of nature. But it isn't! Husbands and wives can stay faithful to each other and keep their promises.

Just as cheating in a relationship is not a forgone conclusion, neither is drinking in college a predetermined fate. RAs are often led to feel as if they are asking the impossible if they ask their resident minors not to drink. They are given the same look of bewilderment usually reserved for observing zoo animals. Is this fair to our RAs? Is it really so inconceivable that college students could go without alcohol?

Some argue that it is. They make the case that alcohol is irreplaceable and required for bringing people together for a good time. Are we really not that creative? Social life at college has not always revolved around the keg or the Beirut table, after all. Even when 18-year-olds could drink legally, drinking was not as widespread as it is today. The generations before us found other ways to enjoy each other's company. Alcohol is not the only way to bring people together. Freshmen often find fraternity parties to be lame in their first few weeks, until they start to get to know and befriend the people there. It can't be the drinking that makes lame fraternity parties into fun ones, because the alcohol is present in both. What makes them fun is the people around you -- people you can laugh and kick back with. Can't this happen without alcohol?

Some would like to say they are not using alcohol as a means to social interaction, but as an end in itself. The alcohol really is what they are after, and whether or not there are other people around doesn't really matter. If that is the case, and drinking is their top priority, you would think they could find cheaper means for getting what they want. Paying $40,000 a year for the right to walk down Professor's Row is not a very good deal.

RAs who are trying to enforce the alcohol policy are not trying to be jerks - they are trying to help you be college students. Statistically, several hundred of us will not make it to graduation. Chances are good that someone won't cut it, not because the work is too hard, but because they waste their time and themselves getting smashed. Just as it is for their own good that husbands and wives promise to stay together, it is for our own good that the University doesn't want to see minors drinking.

We should not give our RAs such a hard time for caring enough about us to enforce the rules. Our RAs would not have to crack down on enforcement if we were already policing ourselves. Of course they can't hunt us down. If you want to, can you drink without your RA knowing? Yes, if you put your mind to it. Your RA won't know. But you will know. You are the only one who knows who you are when no one is looking. But you will have to look your RA in the eyes.