Madeleine Coles

Life Editor

Virtually any movie or television show that has even one scene set at a college will feature the same things: beer pong, loud music, drunken students taking turns riding a slip n’ slide down the dorm hallways and the like. It’s the stereotypical “college atmosphere.”

But the residence halls at ISU look much different.

ISU is a dry campus, to a degree.

Alcohol is not allowed in any of the residence halls, but students over the age of 21 living in on-campus apartments are allowed to have alcohol, as long as no minors are also in residence, according to Director of Housing Craig Thompson.

Although no alcohol is allowed in the residence halls, it can possibly find its way there.

“I can’t ensure that [the residence halls] are alcohol free because people sneak it in,” Thompson said. “We don’t have a police state in the residence halls. We want to treat people with dignity and give them their privacy.”

According to Thompson, they typically are only drawn to dorms due to loud noises or disruptive behavior.

If alcohol is found in a dorm, all students present are required to go through what Thompson calls a “conduct process,” which involves taking an online Alcohol 101 course about the signs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse. The course is paid for by the students.

“That appears to have worked very well for us,” Thompson said, adding that the number of secondary violations is low.

The penalty for a second violation is a heavier fine as well as counseling, and a third violation could result in suspension from the university.

“I came from Boise, and alcohol use has always seemed much lower here,” Thompson said. “My first year, I was kind of stunned at how few alcohol instances there were on campus.”

However, the key words in Thompson’s statement are “on campus.”

According to Director of Public Safety Lewis Eakins, the majority of incidents involving student drinking occur when an intoxicated student returns to campus after drinking elsewhere.

He stated that the cases Public Safety most frequently deals with are “welfare checks” to ensure an intoxicated student’s safety.

“Typically someone else with the person, such as a friend or roommate, who is concerned about their health will call us,” Eakins said. “Those are the cases I am seeing more.”

In such instances, Public Safety will determine the level of care needed for the student. Sometimes they simply call someone to pick the student up, other times they need to call an ambulance.

Eakins said that while such incidents aren’t rare, they also aren’t something that occurs frequently, saying “it’s just something that happens.”

In Thompson’s opinion, student drinking is on the decline.

“I think it’s trending down,” Thompson said. “I’m not a moralist. I don’t condemn people who drink … but it’s encouraging that the younger generation seems to be embracing a wiser perspective.”

But he did add that there were “more opportunities for underage students to drink off campus.” And for those students who consume their alcohol elsewhere, there may be less chance of university-related consequences- if they’re not caught.

“There’s a clear delineation between university policies and laws,” Thompson said.

However, if intoxicated students return to campus and are caught being disruptive, they are held accountable to university policy, according to Thompson.

“They don’t have to drink on campus to be in violation of campus policy,” he said.

At least on campus, it’s unlikely for students to find any college parties like the ones they’ve seen on television.