OpinionsEditorials

Drinking fine: guilty by location

An unofficial policy has been established in the University of La Verne residence halls regarding the consumption of alcohol.

When alcohol cans or bottles are found in the trash in the lounge or bathroom of any building, residents of that floor will be charged $1 per bottle. At the end of the semester, the charges will be totaled and distributed among the residents of the floor.

Regardless of whether residents are responsible for the bottles, they will be fined.

This new policy is an outrage. Even the innocent and unaware will be charged for the mistakes of others. The fear of this fine will not keep people from drinking on campus and will only end up enraging those who are unjustifiably fined.

University policy is that the ULV campus is dry; therefore, nowhere in these rules and regulations is there a clause for charging students should alcohol be found.

The official policy, as established by the Office of Housing and Residential Life, states: “The University prohibits the possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages and full or empty alcoholic beverage containers anywhere in or around the Residence Halls….”

The housing staff tried to implement this plan last year in the Oaks where drinking is a bigger issue; the staff is ready to create such a policy should the problem of alcohol in the dorms increase this semester.

Some resident assistants are already starting to record charges for bottles found on their floor, and others are threatening their residents with the fine.

But how can they enforce a rule that is not in the Guide to Housing and Residential Life? If it is not recorded in the book residents are supposed to follow, it has no ground on which to stand and will fall through.

Are residents really expected to have to pay when they are not willing to do so? Most students are not going to be willing.

There will be those who do not want to pay because they were not involved. If a student refuses to pay, housing has the ability to tack that fine onto any student account bill, forcing that student to pay it eventually. No one wants to pay for someone else’s carelessness, no matter how big or small the fine.

A startling point is that there is no way to determine for sure where these bottles came from,but the whole floor will be charged regardless. Isn’t it possible that it could be from someone other than the residents on the floor where bottles were found? Empty cans and bottles can be trashed anywhere. With this new rule in effect, that is a definite possibility. No one will want to get charged, so residents will stash their bottles elsewhere, charging other residents incidentally.

The big question is: Where will the money go? Does the housing staff benefit from this? The students certainly won’t. Students living on campus already pay enough for the privilege to do so and do see the benefits of that money. So what would an extra 20 bucks per floor do? It can’t go back to the residents because that would defeat the purpose ­ drinking would become a fundraiser.

This policy is going to be difficult to regulate, and it is going to cause more problems than it will solve.

If housing had any sense, they would go back to the drawing board with their alcohol policies.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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