RESIDENCE HALL RULES: Sometimes they don't make
sense
by Nathan Harris
Nate, put down that spatula before it's too late!
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We all know that there is a blanket of rules
covering us as students at a university as big as MSU, sometimes several,
and the weight of it all on top of you can get stifling sometimes.
I know for a fact that this happens, rules exerting their influence
in areas of life where they have no business. I know because I have
recently experienced this in my own way.
Warm weather a few weeks ago prompted me to make an impulse decision
and buy a charcoal grill at Meijer. A grill, back of charcoal, and grill
matches. Innocent, I know.
I assembled it, took it outside, then broke
it in, cooking up a few pieces of meat. A couple weeks later, I fired
it up again, so to speak, to cook sausages and shish kebabs. I ran
into some trouble, though, when a university official came outside
on to the sidewalk and tells me that I am not allowed to grill, outside,
on the sidewalk.
After saying that I could not put away a brazier
of burning charcoal, a compromise was reached where I would move across
the parking lot (where I was still not allowed to cook out in the
open air), finish as fast as possible, and make the grill disappear
forever.
Now, I didn’t take the possibility of
an out and offer her a kebab, but the events got me thinking; first
asking myself if there were anti-grilling rules on the books somewhere,
and second, what some of the mechanics of the system were.
The University Housing Terms and Conditions
seemed to fit with what I had been told. “Charcoal grills, lighters, and propane gas tanks
cannot be used on campus, except for MSU personnel.”
The MSU Student Handbook and Resource Guide,
which “includes
rules…that have been established in the interest of intellectual
and personal development,” tells a different story. In the interest
of some kind of development, the handbook says, “No person shall
set a fire upon property governed by the Board, except in approved stoves,
or in grills in designated picnic area.”
This doesn’t really help me grill outside the door in Brody,
but it is definitely not the same as “…except for MSU personnel.” I
don’t see solely employees of the university grilling behind Van
Hoosen Hall, where there are designated picnic/grill areas.
The point is not complaining about being told
I can’t do what
I want, though I don’t know the last time I’ve had myself
a better bratwurst. The point in incongruous university policy whether
due to poor communication at various levels, ad hoc rule-making, or
some cosmic chaos theory that prevents a grand unified set of guidelines
from existing. This is only one small example, but sometimes, the rules
just don’t make sense.
