Is It OK for RAs to Drink?

by Christine Smith on 16/04/09 at 3:55 pm

Eastern is a dry campus, but it is not uncommon to hear about Resident Assistants (RAs) getting drunk off campus and coming back to school. “I have definitely heard of it,” says Sophomore, Ryan Howe.

However, some students around campus feel as though RAs should behave on a higher level. RA Kyle Rockett states, “RAs should always conduct themselves with integrity and dignity, being that we are role models and leaders on campus. We should portray ourselves as such.” Senior Jane* agrees. “It’s irresponsible…It would disappoint me if they do that [drink and come back to campus] because I respect the authority they [RAs] have.”

While some believe that drinking among RAs is inappropriate, others have differing opinions. “As far as I know,” says Senior, Jennifer Paradis, “you are not allowed to consume alcohol on campus…there is no rule against coming back drunk… You can act your age as long as you are not driving or putting others at risk.” Paradis is correct. According to Kimberly Silcox, of the Judicial Office “They [RAs] are just like any other student. Anyone who is over 21 has the legal right to drink off campus.” Silcox states that while Eastern is a dry campus, students who are of age are allowed to drink off campus, as long as they do not violate any other rules.

“We would hope that they would not drive. If they do and are stopped by the police that falls into additional violations…this applies to any student.”

Certain students agree with this rule. Howe states, “It is their right to have fun, just because they took on that responsibility should not stop them from doing what they want…I do not think anything should be done to stop it.” Paradis concurs, “You are held to a different standard. If you want to go out with your friends…it [being an RA] shouldn’t restrict your life.”

Silcox agrees, “The student code of conduct applies to all students. We do not single out…any subgroup.”

For more information on Eastern’s code of conduct, check the student handbook on the student affairs page of the Eastern website.

*name changed to conceal identity.

9 Responses to “Is It OK for RAs to Drink?”

confused RA

Apr 16th, 2009

RAs are students too! I think one of the bigger issues is RAs drinking with their residents off campus…RAs in freshman buildings shouldn’t drink with their resident because they are obviously under 21…but then comes the situation of who should leave the party the RA or the resident or what happens when an RA who is 21 is at a bar and underage residents come in…its all so complicated!
Vicki

Apr 22nd, 2009

KYLE ROCKETT! What a sell out!

RAs are the sneakiest people on campus. They know how to get around the rules.

My advice for any resident is to become friends with your RA, and then reap the benefits.
Wyatt K

Apr 28th, 2009

What have you done to the Campus Lantern? It looks glossy, but I would rather have the hard edged look of the 1993-1995 days and the hard edged content than the kind of PR that is in the paper now. I like the fact that there is still state coverage. I hope the president still takes Lantern writers up to Hartford to cover politics relating to the budget and the president’s lobbying at the LOB. There is no news from other campuses and the Central recorder just had a major scandal. We had an agreement with Central that they were allowed to reprint our stories and we could print theirs. You should try and ensure that you have an agreement with them to exchange stories via e-mail since they are not online. I would consider a business section covering CT businesses and ask the Bus. dept. to give students credit for writing for that section. About 14 years ago, we tried to cover serious stuff like politics and state issues, but we also had a hard edge that is lacking in this rather fluffy issue. I guess the Lantern’s well established hard edge to it is kind of out the window these days? You should check out some of the issues we did in 1993-1995 and you will see why the Lantern was so talked about then.
Wyatt K

Apr 28th, 2009

I am not sure that we would have done a story posing a question about whether RA’s should drink. Instead, we would have done a story about a drunk RA and tried to get photos of that RA passed out!
Wyatt K

May 1st, 2009

By the way, the story in the most recent issue about marijuana is a terrific story, but why not gear it toward the state law that effectively turns possession into an infraction? You can find a lot of this type of news at the General Assembly website which lists the bills before the judiciary committee from Jan. to late Mar. each year. The judiciary committee bills are a goldmine of news and if the Lantern staff still goes to Hartford it would be wise to make connections with the staff in the judiciary office so you could call and find out what is controversial. Also, it is important to check out the Judicial Branch website and check out some of the opinions released by the Appellate and State Supreme Court. There is a lot of interesting news there as well which would compliment the Lantern’s state coverage and enhance its credibility. The paper should really have more original photography. At one time, before digital photography, the Lantern had its own photographer and development facilities. Finally, the cd reviews are good, but as always, they tend to reflect the tastes of the editor of that section rather than to represent a diversity of musical tastes. The police logs are good, but why make that section so large? It is kind of a waste of space. It really should simply be a plain list like it is in any paper. The Lantern really should have covered the Central Recorder’s firing of its editorialist for her political views. The Central recorder story would have made for a terrific cover story. Also, if possible, try and cover some state business news at least with the most high profile businesses. Deal or no Deal is being recorded all summer at Sonalyst studios in Waterford. That would be a great story about why television shows are coming to CT. Jerry Springer and Wilkos is moving here as well. Also, how will the healthcare proposals impact Pfizer and how will defense cuts impact General Dynamics. I would throw all of these stories out there as possibilities. Of course the Lantern is a campus paper, but it can still cover a wide range of news if it has the staff.
Tori Saulnier

May 1st, 2009

Wyatt,

I TOTALLY AGREE.

I was EIC of The Lantern a year ago. I ran the paper for about three years. I was there when the paper went online-only, and I was the one to bring it back in print. True, The Lantern does suck, and it’s because these writers really do not have much training. There are barely any journalism courses at Eastern, the school has pretty much pushed out any hope for these kids to improve their writing.

Also, these stories are easy to cover. They pretty much interview their friends and don’t go too far to find a story. If the story isn’t smacking them directly in the face Lantern writers won’t write about it.

AND IT IS EMBARRASSING THAT THERE WAS NO COVERAGE OF CENTRALS SCANDAL. It’s HILARIOUS that there is a story on this site interviewing the current EIC about pulling out of an SGA race for treasurer. HOW can the Editor of The Lantern run for any position in SGA? CLEARLY they did not read about anything going on at Central. Jesus.

I tried while I was EIC, but it’s all a fruitless waste of time trying to tell college kids to write a goddamn decent story. I couldn’t write much because it was me and one other kid running layout, getting ads, finding stories (that no one had the balls to cover) and holding meetings. We worked our asses off for nothing. It was like working in a morgue my last semester. I’d just stare at blank faces. If it wasn’t for Este, Rob, Adam, Ali, Steven, Andrew, Bridget, Dana and Andrew Dawson I would have lost my mind. Check how many of THOSE people are still on the staff. Wonder why? It’s because they worked their asses off, got fed up, then passed the shit paper to the newbies.

I have a lot of anger and resentment towards The Campus Lantern. It’s turned into a joke. Eastern needs to add some classes to give these kids some idea as to what to do with a newspaper.
Wyatt K

May 1st, 2009

I would disagree about needing journalism classes. Most of us in the early 90’s to mid-90’s had no journalism background, but we knew a good story when we saw it. All you need to know is to use a lot quotes from people, keep the paragraphs to two or three sentences and try to get compelling original photos. We went for the controversial stories and editorials. We always tried to cover political news and tried to be fair to all the candidates. We had an agreement to share our stories with at least Central and when the UCONN Daily had some issues we covered them in our paper. My view is that more students will be attracted if certain things are added. There is a court in Willimantic and maybe someone interested in the law would come forward if the Lantern decided to cover the opinions released from the State appellate and supreme court which are online and also the local court. I do believe that a business section would distinguish the Lantern from all other college newspapers. Our paper was talked about and read by a lot of people because we picked controversial stories. The Lantern should consider checking out http://www.thefire.org which is a site that details litigation and action against colleges. There are a lot of compelling stories that they work on and I would feature what they are doing every week because it is of interest to students. As far as campus, there was always some big controversy every week. You just have to be out there talking to people to find out what is going on. Just about everyone from my time on the Lantern is on Facebook and a lot are fans of the Lantern club page, but we have not been able to post on that site. If anyone from the Lantern needs advice, all the need to do is ask us and, since we really loved the Lantern, we would all be happy to chime in. The Lantern has a fine tradition of controversial cover stories and editorials that should continue. If we were on there today, you can bet that the Central Recorder story would have been on the cover. We never did a Spring weekend story, but if we did, we would have contacted the UCONN police and got all the stories from them about what went on and we would have printed some compelling pictures. There is not a lot of original photography in this issue.
Wyatt K

May 1st, 2009

Tori:
The way that you get staff is you make the paper talked about. Sometimes, it might take throwing some written bricks at someone to do it, but if they deserve it and it is true, throw them. We had few staff problems because our paper was very controversial and it brought us together and made us a close bunch because we had to be. Every other week the administration was sending us e-mails and wanting to meet with us. Of course, we refused, but we knew we had to stick closely together. Yours was not the only bunch that worked hard. When I was news editor, I wrote the cover story (most often more like cover stories) every week. And, I came up with compelling stories because if a story came my way I would write it so that it was compelling and interesting. None of us had journalism backgrounds. I was a history major and a lot of the others were in education. We had to learn the skill on the job. And, the skills are actually very basic. First, you can build a great story by making it heavy with quotes. If you look at my stories, most of them are built around quotes. Second, short paragraphs are great and it took me a long time to realize that a paragraph should only be a two or three sentences for a newspaper. Third, put your most compelling stories on the cover and try to find photos that are compelling. For example, we would have photographed rolled joints for the marijuana story rather than used clip art even if we had to roll tobacco. Fourth, just because color photographs are out there, do not discount the power of black and white photography. Fifth, use captions for the photographs and give the photographer credit. Sixth, secure at least one agreement with Central to share stories. Forget UCONN because they think they are unequal with the Lantern. If it works with Central than try Western. So, that opens you to cover Central sports and also it gives you some choices to use their editorials and stories as they can use yours. Seventh, go for the serious state stories because they are easy compelling stories. Follow what the General Assembly budget and judiciary committees are doing. Follow the opinions of the state supreme and appellate courts which are free and released at the Judicial Branch website. You don’t have to print all the opinions or do stories on them, but there are some interesting ones that come along. Eighth, on a college campus you will find a lot of activities sanctioned by the faculty and administration that would not be tolerated in the real life world. For example, political correctness always gives rise to some compelling stories and when you put these stories under the microscope they expose the proponents of political correctness for what they are. That is why I would suggest checking out http://www.thefire.org and there always have been examples at ECSU. Try writing editorials that touch on numerous topics in more depth than claps and slaps where the editorialist writes opinions on multiple topics in one editorial. If I could have stayed longer, I would have still done the scandalous stories because they were fun, but I would have tried to balance them with serious stories as well. I have to admit, I am a fan of tabloid journalism and I think you can really play up the controversial aspects of any story. In our paper we did a story on some stupid White Male Rage Forum (which really would have been something I would not be all that interested in generally, but it only something you could find on a campus) and our headline was “Tempers Flare at Rage Forum” because one of the faculty members basically went off at the forum. Naturally, we played that up! We could always come up with headlines like that or “Gov. Gambles on Support for Another Casino.” A good headline is key if you have someone talented to do one.

If you want samples of some of my articles, I am on Facebook and would be happy to send them as would anyone else on the Lantern in my time if you ask any one of us. Rob Graham and Jon Pullino were our EIC’s. Adam Meikle was editor when they were burning the Lantern in the Student Center. Steve Plummer can also give good suggestions and he knows a lot of the Lantern’s history. Tara Beatty was our photographer and she might offer advice on how to improve the picture situation. Again, we are all on Facebook. We also have a Dwight Bachman fanclub on Facebook. We have a club page for one of our staff members who is now in prison called Free John Spitz and we have a Ken Moorehead fanclub page because he was the adviser for the Lantern when it was really controversial and being burned in the student center. The fact that it was burned is not something I am embarrassed about. the fact is that institutions of higher learning are not as diverse and tolerant as they claim.
Surprised

Aug 28th, 2009

Tori,
Wow, I dont understand why someone who has apparently graduated and moved on from the campus lantern paper is still sulking. I just recently checked out the lantern’s website and I see many negative comments about the work the staff is doing but mostly what the current editor in chief is not doing written that you wrote. I am sure some people are not taking it seriously as staff writers but I am sure there are also people who do care about their articles and are doing the best they can with what resources they have. For someone who cared enough to be apart the the campus newspaper for three years I would think they would be giving constructive critisism and not continuously posting comments that make the staff look bad to other readers. If you really wanted the paper to improve you shouldn’t go about “fixing it” the way you are.

You obviously have some personal problems with certain staff memebers and I think most readers would agree you are handling it immaturely. I cannot imagine the envirorment it must have been like when you ran the paper, maybe this was part of the problem why you had few writers who took pride in their work.

I suggest you stop pestering this website with your tiring comments and discover ways to express yourself in a more respected way.