Talking Stick - November/December 2008 - 11

More Debate making our college environments more challenging and less satisfying for students college students learn a great deal about personal responsibility when it comes to drinking between their freshman and junior year, and they become more responsible during this time period.” Linda Diaz, director of residence life at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah, sees the issue a bit differently. Most of the violations at her school are caused by underage drinking, and a lower drinking age might lower this number: “Drinking wouldn’t be as exciting for some as it wouldn’t be seen as ‘forbidden’ as it is now.” She concedes, though, that the issue isn’t a simple one: “I am torn because I can see both sides and I have more questions than answers.” Lisa Diekow, associate director of residence life and education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, added a different point of view. She asks, could this topic be larger than what we as housing professionals see on campuses? “Even though this is an issue for college campuses there is a cultural issue at hand in this too. By lowering the drinking age are we solving the problem or just moving it around?” Through the debate and opinions that have been shared since July, everyone can agree upon one thing – more research needs to be done on the effects lowering the drinking age can have before policy implications can be considered. For more information on the Amethyst Initiative, check out www.amethystinitiative.org. Universities BoUnce Back from HUrricane season Higher-education institutions in New Orleans, Louisiana, were once again tested against the muscle of a hurricane when Hurricane Gustav blew in from the Atlantic and made landfall on September 1, 2008. However, with lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 under their belt, they acted on revamped evacuation plans and with better utilization of technology. Staff, students, and faculty at both Loyola University and Tulane University began evacuating on August 29, with only essential staff remaining to maintain power plants and to restore operations after the hurricane had passed. “The vast majority of our students maintain and enacted a personal evacuation plan,” says Marty Brantley, director of housing services and residence life at Tulane. “We transported approximately 250 students from both campuses (our primary campus and our medical campus) to Jackson, Mississippi, for the one-week period we were closed.” The situation was similar at Loyola, with 1,045 on-campus and 469 off-campus students acting on personal evacuation plans. The decision-making arm of the Loyola emergency response team flew to Dallas, Texas, and dispatched communications to students, parents, faculty, and staff to keep them up-to-date on the hurricane’s activity and to disseminate a timeline for resuming operations and classes. Using their emergency text and voice mail messaging system, they reached 4,041 people with the evacuation message and 3,435 with the return-to-campus message (the goal was to reach 4,164 people with each message). During the time campus was closed, students and faculty kept online distance learning classes rolling on Blackboard, with a recorded 24,686 logins. “Because of our Katrina experience, the plan worked very well,” says Robert Reed, director of residential life at Loyola. “The only thing we will change is to preposition assets such as generators, extension cords, fuel, fans, etc. at our evacuation site. My suggestion for anyone in these types of situations is to be flexible.” Tulane also rode out the storm fairly well, according to Brantley: We saw minimal damage during Hurricane Gustav, limited to several downed trees and a few broken windows. Our skeletal, essential personnel who remained on campus during Gustav were able to repair the damage within a couple of days, prior to our return to campus. “We returned to campus with students on Saturday, September 6, 2008, and welcomed the community back on Sunday, September 7.” Classes at both institutions resumed on September 8. Then came Hurricane Ike and institutions in the southeastern parts of Texas braced for the impact when Ike made landfall with 110 mph winds on September 13. Sam Houston State University in Huntsville was closed for several days and reopened on September 22. Students who remained on campus during the closure were asked to stay inside residence halls in order to stay safe after they lost power. Further inland at The University of Texas at Tyler, David R. Hill, director of residence life and judicial affairs, says “There were some limbs down on campus, but little beyond that.” He added that they miraculously did not lose power. “The emergency plan worked very well. The team was able to remain in contact during the storm and we were able to follow up soon after it had passed,” he says. Classes resumed at Tyler on September 15. November + December 2008 11

http://www.amethystinitiative.org

Talking Stick - November/December 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - November/December 2008