Basements open, but for how long?

Last year, residence life threat ened to padlock the basement doors in the townhouses. This, of course, sent everyone into a frenzy, and even if they weren’t sure why, people were upset that their rights were being taken away. This year there are no padlocks, but it’s still a possibility. “This is a make or break year,” said Fran Koerting, associate dean and director of residence life, “You need to prove it’s not too great a temptation [to misuse the basements].” The controversy started last year because there were too many illegal parties being held in the basements, and they were also being used illegally as living space. “The basements are not zoned for living space, and the concern with illegal parties is that it’s a fire hazard because there is only one means of regress,” said Koerting. Laura Cantrell, associate director of residence life, said, “Students are concerned about the action but not the reason.” Before any permanent action was taken, though, residence life wanted to get the opinions of students on how to fix the problems. They held open invitation focus groups, from which many good suggestions came, said Koerting. “That’s where the idea to legalize Beirut came from,” she said, “and the students said they wanted a chance to prove they could handle the situation.” There were also surveys that many students filled out last year in which the students responded they did not want the basements padlocked, but wanted them open for storage space. Cantrell said it depends on how the students this year handle the responsibility of having the basements open. “It’s their chance, and if they blow it they blow it for all students in the future,” she said. But she said this year people are a lot more conscious about the party policy because of the work they have done to push it. “Scare tactics, whether right or wrong, students are paying attention to them,” said Cantrell. “Some of it’s just a miscommunication like with the card readers, that we’re going to come and swipe everyone’s card. Well that’s not necessarily true, but students are reacting.” Koerting said, as a result, students have been a lot better this year. “So far they’ve been wonderful. Compared to last year, it was every weekend, now they’ve been so much better,” she said. Kim Nickolenko, assistant dean of students and director of judicial affairs, said there are no specific numbers comparing last years infractions to this years, but there have still been consistent violations as in past years. “We continue to see some townhouses for unregistered parties, unregistered kegs and other violation of the Social Policy and Residential Guidelines,” she said. “Some of these violations had more than the allotted six people in the basement. Other violations also included having the basement set up with furniture and other items.” That being said, there is still work to be done. In a letter sent by Koerting to the townhouse residents over the summer it warned students of what can happen. “We trust that this year’s group of townhouse residents can resist the temptation of misusing the basements as additional living space or for parties. If not, the university will have to resort to locking off the basements for the following year.” Will Yost ’06, said, “I think that they are only saying they are leaving it up to us because they are afraid of the negative consequences that boarding them up will bring. New students will not want to come to this school if they know things are being done to take away our fun.” Jess Kurose ’06, said, “I think we can [resist the temptation of the basements] especially since now we can have beirut tables down there, and it seems like less people are getting in trouble this year.” So it still remains to be seen what will become of the basements in the townhouses, but something is finally in the hands of the students.”