Alcohol Policies and the College Mentality

By TOM MOORE

After enjoying his time at the Ramapo College Spring Concert, Ramapo College senior Maximino Meneses, 22, just wanted to have a few friends over his apartment. However, as the night went on, floods of people poured into his apartment and things became out of control. Not too long after, public safety quickly came by and busted the party while also serving an interim suspension to Meneses. Giving him little information of what would happen to him other than a number to call at the end of the weekend, Meneses was forced to leave campus immediately.

“I called this place home for the past three years,” said Meneses, “for them to just pretty much kick me out into the street in the middle of the night, without batting an eye, It’s kinda messed up.”

Meneses is one of many students who have suffered from this increase in enforcing these alcohol policies from public safety as well as administration.

Administration has become stricter about enforcing and enacting consequences on students for violating these policies and many have questioned why. From his State of the College address from the Fall 2015 semester, Ramapo College President Peter Mercer made it clear that the college felt that student alcohol consumption was connected to multiple sexual assaults on campus in the previous year. In his address,

Mercer defines why alcohol consumption cannot be fully disconnected from sexual assault acts through discussing views from other scholars. One of the references he uses in the speech, Stony Brook sociology professor Michael Kimmel, states ““…aforementioned research on athletics and fraternities suggests, (sexual assault) likely happens the most on residential college campuses where there are lots of people of the same age going to alcohol-soaked parties in all-male residences with no official administrative oversight”.

From this, President Mercer decided that stricter enforcement would have to take place and higher consequences would also have to occur as well. Ramapo College’s alcohol policies include fines starting at $500 and even losing on-campus housing or even expulsion from the school, students have been a little more worried about these weekend expectations. While these policies have worked and the number of alcohol violations have gone down, as shown in the Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee’s Statement of the Problem page, but students are still seen to be doing the same acts; just a little more discreetly.

Like the Prohibition era that took place in the 1920s, students at Ramapo College have had to be more covert in their drinking and partying habits on the weekends and try to stay out of public safety’s light. But with public safety cars  looming throughout The Village, the senior apartments and typical party location on the Ramapo College campus,  students are more afraid to socialize in the way that they expected to in college.

While kicked off campus, Meneses commuted and went through multiple hearings with student conduct administrators. While most incidents like this take a week at most to determine a student’s punishment, Meneses was left sweating for about two weeks before hearing his punishment.

Many students have had this negative feeling towards administration’s view of their drinking habits for a while, but now seem to be more vocal about these feelings.

Feelings of discontent towards these policies sparked students to protest against the policies in the Fall 2015.

The College Student’s Mentality

Students have expectations when coming into college about “reinventing” or expanding themselves socially. So when officials take away or add more implications to a student’s social life, students will feel less inclined to be social or say that there is a lack of social life on campus. With  Ramapo becoming a growing commuter school and having less students live on campus, it is already hard to have a consistent social life for students.

One Ramapo student, sophomore Alec Barton, feels that the Ramapo campus has lost its social life because of this recent crackdown from administration. Barton discusses how many students are unhappy because they cannot socialize in the same ways that friends who go to other colleges can and that they notice more negative responses about the college, since the stricter enforcement, over positive remarks.

“There is just like an air of discontent,” said Barton, “it feels like there is an overall negative feeling among the students and not just in the fact that there are no more parties really.”

Students, however, have been able to voice these opinions through peaceful protests and even by using social media.

There is no doubt that college students feel that their opinions should matter when dealing with policies that come from administration that affect them. This is how student Jeremy Barbara felt when he helped organize students to peacefully protest against some of the policies against students.

“One of the main goals was to let administration know that we as students wanted to be a part of the discussion about the changing of policies,” said Barbara.

Once the administration saw that students wanted to get their voices heard, Barbara and other students met with administrators to discuss the policies. Barbara and administration noticed a difference in mentality of what the college experience is supposed to be like.

“Administration thinks strict policies will solve the problem whereas we think more lenient policies could actually make the campus safer and help build a stronger relationships with public safety,” said Barbara.

The Administration’s Mentality

As a college administrator, the main goals are keeping students safe from harm, having students receive the best education possible, and making sure that they enjoy their time on campus. Rules and policies are important to help students stay out of trouble and keep them safe on campus.

Student conduct administrator, Matt McMahon, knows the importance of these policies but also is a strong recognizer in needing more student voices heard when dealing with issues with policies.  McMahon says that the administration wants to “encourage socializing” while “not disrupting the community.”

When discussing how administration has been talking with students about alcohol policies, McMahon felt that there was a disconnect with students because of the differing expectation of what the college experience is supposed to be.

“What I find in discussions with students is that we will not be able to fully give students the environment they want regarding alcohol policies because we have to consider risk,” said McMahon, “we have to consider everything and risk will always be a part of that.”

McMahon and other administrators are excited, however, to just get the discussion going as a whole and possibly find some kind of place where both sides can meet in the middle. McMahon sees that maybe things can change for the better now with the help of students. McMahon and other administrators would like to see more student self-control with alcohol consumption so that there is also less heat coming administration and Public Safety’s way when they have to intervene. President Mercer also acknowledges this notion in his Fall 2015 state of college address and feels that there is a lack of student advocacy to help one another.

“Over the years, Ramapo has experienced multiple transports to hospital for severe intoxication, criminal mischief perpetrated on campus by those intoxicated, and a disturbing number of incidences in which students are not exhibiting care for one another in these situations,” said President Mercer.

The Future

Now with students voices being heard and known by administration, they will have to gain a better understanding of each other’s mentality towards how enforce alcohol policies and to keep a good social life for students on campus. Perhaps, there will be some leeway for both parties involved and some compromise between the two.

Perhaps students could do as administration wants and be more self-advocating in helping one another rather than having administration intervene and administration could think more about an incoming college student’s expectation of what their social life could be and think less about “risk.” While Meneses was let back on campus eventually and will graduate at the end of this semester, he hopes to see some social life come back to campus and see a more happy campus overall.

[SOUNDSLIDES: Listen to what students and administration say about the new alcohol policies.