At Thursday’s Campus Council meeting, Eddie Hull further clarified his views on the enforcement of the alcohol policy.
Hull, executive director of housing services and dean of residence life, maintained that all alcohol policy violations must be documented and defended the element of individual discretion exercised by Residence Life and Housing Services staff.
The council passed a resolution Oct. 21 asking for RLHS employees to be able to decide whether or not to document policy infractions on a case-by-case basis. The resolution was designed to help facilitate greater consistency among residence coordinators’ enforcement decisions by allowing RCs to observe minor violations without documenting them. But Hull’s mid-November written response held that all infractions would be documented and at the same time stressed discretion as a crucial element of the process.
“I don’t believe you can have a one-size-fits-all response to these kinds of incidents,” Hull said. “I would rather err from time to time than say that it’s so strict that—Bam!—that’s the way it’s going to go.”
Hull cited two examples of students violating alcohol policy—walking through the residence halls with a can of beer compared to being drunkenly boisterous—as incidents that RLHS staff would handle differently.
“Our staff does have a responsibility to the law to help uphold standards for the community,” Hull said. “We don’t blink, we don’t pretend it didn’t happen.... The most important element of this whole conversation is the safety of students.”
While council members repeatedly stressed that students link documentation to punitive action, Hull pointed out the potential benefit to students’ health and safety that a record of violations may have.
“The sanctions we make are meant to be educational and maybe alter the decision-making process,” Edens Quadrangle RC David Montag said.
Hull agreed, noting that he would prefer intruding on someone instead of having a hands-off policy that may ultimately endanger students.
Hull also questioned his office’s relationship with the council, saying the current pattern of resolutions and responses “doesn’t feel like much of a partnership to me” and adding that he is “not a fan of resolutions.”
Despite Hull’s comments on the Campus Council-RLHS relationship, members of RLHS staff as well as council members expressed satisfaction with the council’s resolution and its impact on student life.
“I think—one way or another—things are improving,” Campus Council Vice President Damjan Denoble said when discussing social life on West Campus.
Tegwin Millard, RC of Few Quad, said the resolution’s passage had allowed RCs an outlet to discuss some of their concerns, and the council had reflected those issues in its final product.
Hull said he is not confident that any discussion of policy enforcement will conclusively settle the debate.
“My honest feeling is we have a cultural problem, and until the culture changes, we are going to have this discussion from time to time,” Hull said.
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