Police State Kills Social Life

dwainwr123
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:41:48 +0000

I graduated from Drew in the late 1990s, and I visited Drew last week for the first time in 5 or 6 years, and I was shocked to hear that there had been drastic social changes at Drew. The school has gone from treating students like adults to being a police state in terms of its alcohol and dorm access policies.

When I attended Drew, the college had a fairly lenient alcohol policy , and allowed students to access any residence hall to visit friends. Drew was never a party school, but on most weekends you used to be able to find a party, and there were a lot of student-run social activities (e.g., Tent Weekend).

Now the college issues hundreds and hundreds of tickets to students each year for alcohol violations, including some of dubious legitimacy (e.g., if one person at a party is underage, everyone at the party gets ticketed). I looked on the US Department of Education website, and Drew issue more disciplinary proceedings for alcohol violations than almost any other college in the state, even though Drew is one of the smallest colleges in the state.

Many of the traditional social events no longer exist because of these policies. I was even more blown away when I heard that students returning after 8 P.M. cannot get into their own residence hall without going to Public Safety. Imagine if you work in the evenings, and come home at 8-9 pm, and you have to call to be let into your building.

Does anyone know what brought about these changes?