New rules in University of Wisconsin housing policies have changed the way students decorate their rooms, pushing shelves loaded with empty liquor bottles and beer cans into the closet.
The change is a result of one of two new major policy changes. It bans all empty alcohol containers and consumption of alcohol in rooms that have at least one resident under the age of 21.
University Housing Director Paul Evans said the policy changes, which had been in discussion for several years, were created to help curb the difficulty housefellows have had in enforcing drinking rules.
“[In the past] there has been a lot of game playing [between residents and housefellows],” Evans said, noting the difficulty in distinguishing between containers that have remnants of alcohol and those that are empty.
Sellery housefellow Matt Jahnke said he isn’t going to look in trash or recycling bins for empty bottles, but if the presence of cans and bottles indicate a party took place, he said he’d write up residents.
“I like the new rules because you don’t have to sit and argue with [residents] anymore,” Jahnke said. “The changes needed to be done because they make it easier for me to do my job.”
Sellery housefellow Alicia Kreul said she’s not sure the policy changes are going to actually change the drinking atmosphere at all. It will, however, make rules easier to enforce for housefellows, she added.
New and returning residents were informed of the policy changes in a letter Evans sent in August, as well as during student orientation and registration.
Jahnke noted that because freshmen were informed so early, there have been very few complaints.
However, “sophomores have definitely complained,” he said. “It’s a hard policy to fully enforce with a changing year.”
UW sophomore Chris Radtke, a resident of Chadbourne Hall, said he doesn’t think the new policies are going to keep people from drinking.
UW Sophomore Meghan Andrews agrees.
“I think it’s kind of pointless. What does it matter if people have empty containers in their room?” Andrews said. “People will still be drinking and collecting bottles as much. They will now just hide [bottles or cans] in their closet.”
The new policy won’t apply to shot glasses or cardboard beer packaging — only containers that held alcohol when they were sold, according to Jahnke.
Jahnke said he hasn’t noticed any changes between last year and this year, but the year is still young.
As the year progresses and students become more comfortable with the rules, “they start to push the envelope more,” Jahnke said, adding, “Whether or not [the new policies] are encouraging more to go out rather to stay in and [drink], I haven’t been able to tell yet.”
Evans said there are currently no plans for any other alcohol policy changes.
“We’re going to see how these [changes] work this year and see if any revisions are needed,” he said, adding it is too early in the school year to tell if the new policies have actually made any difference in alcohol use.
