Can I check your bag?

For those students who opt to live on a college campus in residence halls, they instinctively have certain expectations as to what their experience will be like living inside a dorm.  For students living on the Framingham State campus, their experiences become something a little bit more out of the ordinary.

Until recently this semester, a resident could enter a residence hall, for example after an 8:30am class, and scan in to his/her respective dorm without having to get his/her bag checked.  Bag checks have become a 24-hour occurrence in all dorms across campus.  This has been done in part to combat the incidents of alcohol related events on campus.

Personally, I succumb to the bag checks every time, without any real grumbles or strife…for the most part.  I understand the intended purpose of the policy in effect and its implications to curb alcohol abuse in the dorms.  While I understand the policy, I do not completely agree with it.  The use of a large wooden stick to poke at my belongings seems to go a little bit too far for me.  My property is my property, no way around that.  Glancing into the bag is one thing, but just about rummaging through it is another.  In order to keep students happy around here, we must look at how these bag checks are affecting student life on campus.

 

With an event like the tragic death of a fellow student from drunk driving back in December 2011, the campus is cracking down on drinking.  But won’t this cracking down just cause students to take their drinking habits off campus even more now?

This makes me a bit nervous.  It’s a scary thought that the school is pushing students’ drinking habits off campus, onto the roads, and straight into danger.

Do invasive bag checks actually curb anything?  If anything, it potentially encourages off-campus drinking, which involves driving to locations away from campus.  The fact of the matter is that young people will drink; the school should take some responsibility in providing 21 plus students with a safe space in which to do so.  Whether to bring back McCarthy’s Pub or to install a 21 plus residence hall, I am unsure if any of these options are feasible.  If anything, the administration needs to be conscious of the issue and recognize all options.