journal 5

For my investigative report I decided to get to the bottom of underage drinking in the pollock dorm residence. Whats the big attraction and why people do it?

The pollock dorm complex is very close to downtown and right next to south halls. It is very easy for kids to transport alcohol from downtown to the dorm rooms and never be seen. Also, all the sororities are locates in these two dorm complexes, so does that mean more drinking goes on here than other dorms like east and west? Most of the pollock dorm rooms are rearranged so that there is a lot of space. the beds are perpendicular and both desks are against the wall, so the middle of the room is very wide open. There is a lot of room to have people in the rooms and even room to put other furniture like small chairs for when people come over. Also, the closets are on opposite sides of the room from one another. It is not a hard thing to hide alcohol in these rooms and the RA would never know where it was. From in the closet right behind the door to under the bed in the front corner of the room, you could get away with hiding a lot of alcohol and other things in these rooms.

I interviewed many people that I know in the building, who know people or who have had first hand experience drinking in their rooms. Mick, a 19 year old freshman who lives on the sixth floor said,

“I watched people drink in their rooms first hand, they always keep the door locked and are very cautious about the noise level and if the RA is around.” Becky, an eighteen year old freshman, who lives on the fifth floor of Mifflin hall mentioned:

“I have kept alcohol in my room before. I kept it in the freezer and locked my door at all costs, even if I was just going down the hall.” My good friend Tom, who is also a freshman, lives across the lawn in porter hall. The first weekend we were here he texted me saying,

“A kid down the hall just got caught with alcohol cause he was carrying around the hallway, what a dumb ass.”

I was reading the policies of Pollock commons and my building does not allow alcohol in the dorms no matter if you are of legal age, so it is illegal. Also, two hundred students have been cited for alcohol in residence halls during the schools first two weeks (Pittsburgh Tribune Review). I talked to my “floor keeper Shaunee, who takes the trash out and cleans the bathrooms and she said she notices many different types of alcohol in the garbage cans, and notes she sees a lot of four locos. After taking a look at the policies, it is legal to drink if you are twenty one only in non first year dorms.

One thing i did stumble upon is that all the different sororities in the pollock commons and i feel as if I need to investigate that and see if they drink in their dorm rooms at all. Another Thing I feel I need to do is interview some of the house coordinators and see what their take is and what can the eventual consequences be. Also, have they ever caught anyone themselves and what are the RA’s trained to do in a situation where they see alcohol in a room.