Be Proactive and Reactive Colleges Need to Actually Enforce Their Housing Policies

Be Proactive and Reactive Colleges Need to Actually Enforce Their Housing Policies https://flic.kr/p/gGyojR On average, college students pay an increasing rate of $9,804 every year to live in dormitories in addition to their tuition costs. One way that universities try to help students become more familiar with their campuses is to assign them a Resident Advisor (RA). Usually every floor in a dormitory has an assigned RA to handle roommate disputes, inform students of fun events happening in their building, and to ensure that they have at least one person they can call in an event of confusion or immediate danger. There is also a Hall Director appointed to every dormitory to handle serious situations and maintain peace and order in their building. With such an extensive amount of authorities on campus, there is no justifiable reason why 81% of reported campus rapes happen in university-owned dormitories. All universities have some form of housing policies for their residents to abide by that include regulation of guests. Usually students have family and friends sleep in their dorms at some point time during the academic year to catch up on life or for a good old-fashioned sleepover with friends. But it seems that despite university guest policies, Hall Directors and Resident Advisors are not implementing them. Due to limited single rooms or by choice, many students spend their first year of college with one or more roommates. Some roommates become close friends, others don’t. Every person has a different level of comfort around people in their personal space (including their roommate’s guests). A common residential policy is that to have overnight guests, all roommates must give their consent in all aspects or there can be no guests at all. But as a college student myself, I have seen how young adults have their own agenda and sometimes ditch the rules when they see fit, despite making others uncomfortable. More often than not, RAs and Hall Directors do not check these residents and other students are left feeling uncomfortable. I can’t help but believe that this loose policy enforcement plays a part in the abundant amounts of rapes, reported and unreported, on college campuses. It is not enough to promote rules with posters. You have to enforce them with actions by keeping better track of who is coming in and out of dormitories and following university laws. Hall Directors and Resident Advisors can’t stop every sexual assault. But I do believe they can be doing much more. I don’t believe students need to be treated as children, but when people are being assaulted so frequently on common ground, the community needs to sacrifice some freedoms for the greater good. From the frequent unprosecuted rapists, it is pretty obvious that many University Administrators do not take rape cases as seriously as they should. Patting rapists on the back with a consequence is not enough to create a safe space. It is time that colleges are proactive and reactive. Writing policies that are intended to prevent campus rape means nothing when your staff does nothing to enforce them. It’s time that College Administrators, Hall Directors, and Resident Advisors do the work that they are paid to do so that their students can pursue an education in a safe environment, as they rightfully deserve. If you have dealt with sexual assault, on or off of a college campus, and are seeking help, please click here.