Sonoma State Star

Issue date: 10/11/06 Section: News

The Residential Life and Housing Offices work together to create a community that fosters educational and social advancement. Policies are enforced to help students succeed in college.

Welcome to college. Drink, smoke and be merry, for tomorrow you may end up having your housing agreement terminated. With a greater number of students living on campus this year, many of which are first-time freshmen, the number of policy violations has also risen. While members of Residential Life are doing their best to keep students surrounded by a healthy, academic environment, some students are working equally as hard to find ways around the polices that have been implemented.

"Alcohol in the dorms has always been an issue, but it's mainly been the abundance of marijuana that has really taken us by surprise," said Cyndie Morozumi, director of Residential Life and Student Affairs. "Students have found much more sophisticated ways of smoking it, such as using vaporizers or grinders. The availability of marijuana seems to also be much greater than it has in the previous years, and students don't have to work as hard, or even go as far, to get it anymore. We've always had policies regarding marijuana, but this has been one of the first years that we've really had to use them as often as we do." The punishment for being in possession of marijuana ranges from a misdemeanor to housing termination, depending on the amount that the student has with him or her.

"Less than an ounce will result in a misdemeanor. But, if a student has something like four to five grams on them, which we would categorize as bulk marijuana, that will lead to the termination of their housing agreement," said Morozumi.

While the amount of marijuana present on campus has been an issue concerning all class levels, the use of alcohol has been especially high in the freshmen dorms. This year, the number of freshmen living on campus grew to over 1,400-a large jump from last year when there were less than 1,000. The villages of Zinfandel, Verdot and Cabernet are typically reserved for freshmen, but with those villages filled, Housing was forced to make Sauvignon East a freshmen living area as well.

"In the first three weeks of school, I dealt with more alcohol poisonings than I had the entire previous semester," said Danielle D'Amato, a CSA in Sirrah. "It's been a little scary." Members of Residential Life started taking extra steps in making sure that their residents understood the policies, with the implementation of new programs like the Meaningful Overnight Residential Experience (M.O.R.E.) that took place this summer as an extended addition to Summer Orientation.

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