PAGE 8 — THE DECREE — OCTOBER 4,1996
‘Substance-free’ dorms more popular
By COLLEEN DEBAISE
Think late Saturday night at
the dorm. Think smoke-filled
halls, raised voices belting out the
words to “Mony, Mony,” and
drunken students playing hall
sports.
But the proverbial “college
scene” is fading on some cam
puses, as a growing number of
students eschew keg blasts for a
cleaner, quieter place to live.
In the last three years, sub
stance-free halls, dorms, and even
fraternity houses have surged in
popularity.
Colleges and universities that
offer substance-free housing in
clude Arizona State University,
State University of New York-
Binghamton, Colorado State Uni
versity, Connecticut College,
Dartmouth College, Denison Uni
versity, Iowa State University,
Michigan State University, Ohio
State University, Pennsylvania
State University, Purdue Univer
sity, Rice University, University
of California-Los Angeles, Uni
versity of Colorado, University
of Nebraska, University of Wis-
consin-Madison and numerous
others.
The national headquarters of
Sigma Nu Fraternity has helped
12 of its 214 chapters become
Dumi Center
to host state
dance group
(Continued from Front Page)
Patricia McDride and Jerri
Kumery.
Bonnefoux joined the Paris
Opera Ballet at age 14 and was
named Danseur Etoile at the age
of 21. He has danced with the
Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets and in
1970 became a principal dancer
with the New York City Ballet
under the direction of George
Balanchine.
The Dance Theatre was
founded by Robert Lundgren in
1970 and inspired by ten years of
leadership under the creative ge
nius of Salvatore Aiello.
The company’s reputation is
based on strong dancers, high en
ergy, and a versatile repertoire
that ranges from stunning inter
pretations of full-length classical
ballets to bold, witty, and deeply
moving contemporary works.
For tickets, call the Dunn Cen
ter Box Office at 985-5197. The
box office is open Friday from
noon to 5 p.m. and one hour be
fore Friday’s performance.
substance-free.
At the University of Maryland,
the number of students living in
substance-free dorms has risen
from 120 in 1993 to about 1,000
today.
“Basically it’s an extra nice
environment to live in. It’s great,”
says J.R. Rosenberg, 19, a sopho
more at Maryland.
“You don’t have people throw
ing up all over the stalls and leav
ing it,” he explains. “You don’t
have drunk people coming in an
urinating all over. Stupid things
like that do go on [elsewhere].”
He lives on the sixth floor of
Denton Hall, which has been des
ignated as substance-free: no al
cohol, drugs, or tobacco allowed.
But what you choose to do out
side the hall is your business,
Rosenberg stresses.
“I am in a fraternity, so I see
both sides of the world on cam
pus,” he says. “A lot of people
who live in the substance-free
dorms don’t see all of what goes
on, so they don’t appreciate the
environment they live in.”
At Maryland, substance-free
housing was launched three years
ago with a grant from the U.S.
Department of Education, says
Karla Shepherd, coordinator of
programs and orientation. The
idea, she says, is to prevent drug
and alcohol abuse on campus.
Students have latched onto it
because “they want more
choices,” she explains. “They
might not abstain from alcohol
and drugs, but they still want to
live in a substance-free [residence
hall]. Others are committed to a
substance-free lifestyle.”
Many students just want to
avoid temptation by keeping away
from the party, she adds.
“They’re here for an educa-
Wampler to leave
Wellness Center
(Continued from Front Page)
ences with the college and
Wellness team, Wampler said,, “I
have enjoyed working here at
North Carolina Wesleyan College
these past four years and will re
member fondly the friendships
I’ve made with students, fellow
staff members, and faculty. I will
certainly carry these fond memo
ries with me to Tennessee.”
Jane, a mother of two boys,
(Eric, 19, and Jason, 12) will ac
company them and her husband
in relocating to Fast Food
Merchandiser’s plant in Cooke
ville, Tenn. Her very own occu
pational prospects include mak
ing her services available at Ten
nessee Tech Universit^.^^^^
tion,” she says. “You could basi
cally blow it by abusing alcohol
and drugs.”
At many colleges, students say
the temptation to get “toxxed,”
“zoned,” “blotto” or otherwise
“unsober” is definitely there. Ac
cording to a study released last
year by Harvard University’s
School of Public Health and So
cial Behavior, a survey of more
than 17,500 students at 140 col
leges and universities showed that
44 percent of students report
binge drinking. Forty-one percent
of entering freshmen who re
ported not binge drinking in high
school began bingeing shortly af
ter arriving at college.
The same researchers showed
that widespread binge drinking on
America’s college campuses had
serious “secondhand” effects on
students who do not binge.
Eighty-seven percent of college
students reported secondary binge
effects from drunk students, rang
ing from insults to lost sleep to
cases of sexual assault.
Binge drinking is defined as
consumption of five or more
drinks in a row for men or four or
more drinks in a row for women
on one or more occasions during
a two-week period.
“Heavy drinking can cause or
contribute to a number of prob
lems for youth,” says Steven A.
Schroeder, president of the Rob
ert Wood Johnson Foundation,
“such as poor academic perfor
mance and school failure, assault,
automobile accidents and result
ing fatalities, recreational injuries,
violence, and risky behavior like
early and unprotected sex.”
So whether students are
searching for quieter living quar
ters or want to avoid the potential
pitfalls of partying, campuses re
port greater number of students
are choosing substance-free liv
ing. Maryland’s program is based
on the first substance-free hous
ing program started in 1989 at
the University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor. There, the number of stu
dents living in substance-free
housing has jumped from 5(X) to
2,600 today.
“Substance-free housing is re
ally a lifestyle choice,” says Alan
Levy, director of housing at
Michigan. “[Students] think it will
be the most academic-supportive
life in a residence hall that they
can obtain.”
When surveyed, students also
say they chose to live in a sub
stance-free environment because
“in high school, they knew some
one who paid a serious conse
quence for alcohol abuse,” Levy
says.
The soaring cost of tuition has
played an important factor too.
With more students taking out
larger loans to pay for college,
“they better use the time effi
ciently,” he says.
According to Maryland’s J.R.
Rosenberg, an added bonus to the
substance-free hall is that resi
dents often are more courteous to
their neighbors.
“It’s very quiet. If you want to
study and someone’s playing their
radio low, they’ll lower it for
you,” he says. “On other floors, it
doesn’t happen.”
Substance-free housing, how
ever, has yet to gain universal
acceptance, he says. Outsiders
tend to stereotype hall residents
as “people who don’t go out,
people who study all the time,”
he says. “The main word that
comes out is ‘dorks.’ Or ‘nerds.’”
That’s been a national concern
for fraternity members, who
worry that shedding the “Animal
House” image might drive mem
bers away, but at the University
of Califomia-Berkeley, the first
fraternity to go substance-free.
Sigma Nu, has attracted 30
pledges this rush season, among
the best turnout on campus for a
Greek house.
Starting this year, no alcohol,
smoking, or illegal drugs will be
allowed at the Sigma Nu house.
Instead, the 104-year-old chapter
has sought out a new crop of re
cruits who are interested in “a
fraternity for the ‘90s — a clean,
well-lighted place to study and
make friends,” says Bob Tuck, a
Sigma Nu alumnus who is presi
dent of the fraternity’s governing
board.
In addition to being substance-
free, the new Sigma Nu offers
rooms that are wired for modems
and an online study area.
“We’re looking for serious stu
dents who would like to have the
additional experience of a living
group,” says Tuck. “They’ll have
the fraternity experience that
they’ve heard about without the
noise, disruption, and peer pres
sure that exists in many houses.
“This doesn’t mean the mem
bers are teetotalers,” he adds. “It
just means that any parties at the
chapter house cannot serve alco
hol. If they want to have a party
with alcohol, they can have some
one else, an insured entity, cater
the event at a location than
handles the sale of liquor and
checks for I.D.”
Theta Chi fraternity at the Uni
versity of Wisconsin-Madison is
adopting a similar substance-free
policy, after years of trouble with
alcohol and hazing violations.
The substance-free policy ap
plies only to events at the frater
nity house itself. “Members can
go out somewhere and have an
event and have alcohol or tobacco
there,” says Dave Westol, execu
tive director of Theta Chi’s na
tional headquarters.
The policies are catching on
across the nation for a number of
reasons, including lower insur
ance rates, better living condi
tions, and academic improvement
of members, Westol says.
The programs already have
met with success at the Utah Sate
University and University of
Colorado, among other schools,
he said.
Often, fraternities turn to sub
stance-free houses as a way to
fight dwindling membership. That
was the case with Sigma Nu at
Berkeley, according to Bob Tuck.
“There had been a gradual de
cline in the fraternity during the
past several years,” said Tuck,
“both in the way members con
ducted their social activities and
in the physical condition of the
house.”
Last September, the board dis
cussed its concerns with the fra
ternity members and hired an
alumnus as a full-time adviser.
But by the end of December, not
enough progress had been made,
and the board in early January
dismissed all active members
from the house. The students were
given alumni status in Sigma Nu.
Sigma Nu’s international head
quarters encouraged the change.
“We considered closing the
chapter because of the lack of fra
ternal values, but what we really
wanted to do was build a new,
positive group,” said Kelly
Phillips, regional director of
Sigma Nu Fraternity. “All our
new or reorganized chapters now
are substance-free.”
To give the Sigma Nu house
an updated look, the inside was
refurbished and the traditional ivy
growing outside on the brick walls
was removed.
“We wanted not only substan
tive organization change,” said
Tuck, “but symbolic change as
well.”
Tuck said he isn’t sure whether
the architects of the transformed
Sigma Nu chapter will be consid
ered “pariahs or progressive.” But
one thing is certain: new tradi
tions are starting with these
pledges who chug water, milk,
and soda instead of alcohol.
“We’re going to serve the com
munity, the university, and the
serious student, “ he said. “What
we’re not going to serve is alco
hol.”