The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) has declared that next year Residential Assistants (RAs) will be forbidden from dating anyone in their assigned buildings. The decision comes as Director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning Yolanda King attempts to reconcile university regulations with Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) rules. The decision, however, has upset a great number of Tufts students who sense an infringement on their personal lives. This has not been the first time that a decision on the part of ResLife has aggravated the student body. The implementation of these new rules is an intrusion into the lives of students. It is, quite simply, a bad policy that will fall flat and as such should be rescinded for a more intelligent solution.
The idea that ResLife can prevent relationships between two people in a dorm is not founded in reality, unless the Office intends to install security cameras in all living spaces with an eye on every nook, cranny and alcove in which students might encounter their romantic interests. The separation of people by positions in a community has rarely - if ever - stopped relationships from developing across these lines. Not only will this policy fail, but it also displays the arrogance of an office that has repeatedly proven itself ineffectual.
Aside from being a faulty policy, this decision by ResLife to ban RA-resident relationships holds disturbing implications. If the university continues with this policy for the purpose of preventing the development of these "inappropriate" relationships, how fine is the line between the university's jurisdiction and students' privacy? This assumption that the administration can dictate whom students may date is an uncomfortable one and speaks to the ills of a bureaucracy still all too disconnected from the students it serves. The reasoning behind this decision - to prevent conflicts of interest in handling residential life judiciously - does not require such a radical step. Though the policy is attempting to meet OEO standards, here is a place where discretion is entirely appropriate and, in fact, necessary, to best protect our valued privacy.
It is unfortunate that this decision has been made, moreso because the ban on current RAs from talking to media has only worsened ResLife's image. It is in the best interest of the students to take a stand against this with what little time remains. Not only is this bad policy, but in its implementation it will infringe upon our valued right to make our own choices about our own relationships.
