The number of students sent to detoxification centers is on the rise, highlighting the drinking behavior of UW-Madison Housing residents. Lenient housefellows draw attention to an already growing problem: underage drinking in the dorms.
How to drink in the dorms is one of the first lessons freshmen learn when they are on campus.
'Last weekend, we borrowed a table from another floor to play beer pong on our floor. Our housefellow doesn't really care if we drink as long as he doesn't see it,' said UW-Madison sophomore Adam, whose last name was withheld.
Students tend to take advantage of the routine schedule of on-duty housefellows to avoid warnings and citations.
'The housefellows do their rounds around 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.; other than that, we can pretty much do whatever we want and not get caught,' Adam said.
'We are very clear with our housefellows about their responsibilities to report drinking violations. Lack of reporting violations would be a failure of the job they are supposed to do. Just like any other job, this could eventually result in dismissal,' said Director of UW-Madison Housing Paul Evans.
According to Kevin Helmkamp, director of University Housing for the Southeast dorms, housefellows go through three weeks of alcohol violations training prior to any residents moving in.
'Our response to alcohol violations really is an attempt to be educational, but also protective of our residents in that for fairly low violations we would start with warning letters. Usually around the third low-level violation the student is convincing us that maybe we should consider not having them live with us,' Helmkamp said.
Policy changes also have tried to limit alcohol in the dorms. According to Officer Dan Swanson of the UW-Madison Campus Police, alcohol is no longer allowed in dorm rooms that have both a 21-year-old and an underaged person. Also, guests of underage residents are no longer allowed to bring alcohol into the dorms.
'We can start with just a verbal warning and make the students pour out the alcohol, but usually in the dorms we try to ticket as much as possible just because it's an ongoing issue every year, so we try to make it known that it's not going to be tolerated,' Swanson said.
Although intended to make drinking in the dorms taboo, lectures from housefellows instead teach how to make smart decisions when drinking.
Loud music and shouting usually attract roaming housefellows, yet avoiding problems with authority when drinking seems easy enough with a measure of discretion and a closed door.
'Our housefellow told my floor that if he saw us drinking that he would write us up,' UW-Madison freshman Duncan said. 'But he also told us the best way to avoid that was to keep our door closed.'
