Entertainment needed to save campus

Read the police reports for UTC every week and you're bound to notice a pattern: the students here are bored.And what do bored students do? They get into trouble.

We've got all the basics: sex (near the Baptist Student Center), drugs (swallowed to avoid the police) and rock 'n roll (played so loud as to necessitate noise complaints).

There has been a major shift in the culture of this campus.

Namely, we have changed from a commuter campus to live-in campus. And no one's watching the kids, especially in the south end of campus.

Many students chose UTC because of the apartment-style dorm rooms. They think this style of living will afford them more freedom and privacy. And they're right.

The first mistake the housing department is making is not segregating freshmen.

People living away from home for the first time need special supervision. They need more RAs and stricter rules.

The housing department's idea to have freshmen live with seniors was a nice attempt to solve this, but it's not working. Most 21-year-olds don't want to spend their senior year looking out after an 18-year-old who they don't know anything about.

The second mistake the housing department is making is allowing women and men to live so closely together.

Granted, it would be next to impossible to have entire dorms on this campus dedicated to one sex or the other, but the buildings should at least be portioned off in a way that causes the least logistical problems, either by floor with the Place buildings, or by sections, with dorms like Village and Boling.

Students who aren't even old enough to have a beer with dinner are not old enough to be trusted with the opposite sex in an academic setting where the university administrators have at least implied they will watch over them.

The third mistake is not giving the kids something to do every night.

Yes, we're a college, but we're also babysitters. Just like one wouldn't expect a child one was watching to just sit there and be good, university administrators can't realistically expect students to just sit in their dorms and study.

During the week, we need study parties. These parties would not cost much to get a good turn out. You'd be amazed how many people will show up if you promise them free pizza, even for something as abhorrent as schoolwork.

On the weekends, we need this place to become Club UTC. We need music and dancing and lights. We need entertainment.

We need costumes and face painting. In short, we need something fun to do; because the alternative is unthinkable.

We've already had reports of bullets whizzing past students' heads in the Place Properties buildings.

We already have students so drunk they urinate in the elevators.

We already have garbage in the lobbies and staircases.

And despite what we're being told, security is still not at the level it needs to be. It's still possible to walk right into any of the UTC Place dorms without passing any security, because people are still propping the doors open.

It's still possible for students to have their boyfriends and girlfriends, who aren't even UTC students in some cases, living with them in their dorm rooms.

How long are we going to have to wait for this campus to wake up and realize there are thousands of lives at risk here? Do we really want to wait until the lead story in the Echo is "At least 21 students killed in shooting rampage?"

We don't. And we think you don't either.

So what can we do about this right now?

The greatest untapped resource on this campus is the Association for Campus Entertainment. They may just be our salvation.

But in order to do this, they have got to get more students involved, get more money and plan more events.

We know to say money is tight on this campus is the understatement of the year, but compare the cost of bringing a good band to campus to the lawyer's fees the university will be shelling out when some student gets shot on campus and their parents find out how lax the university has been in keeping their child out of trouble.

Just look at "A Red Carpet Affair," the event put on April 5 in the UC to benefit Young Life. This was an event students actually had to pay to get into, but they still came out in droves because there was music and entertainment.

Events like "A Red Carpet Affair" benefit the campus community in three ways.

First, they give the event planners a way to occupy their time.

Second, they give event attendees a trouble-free way to spend an evening.

Third, they remind students that there is a world out there that is larger than themselves, and perhaps they should consider helping it.

If we had more events like this, there would be a drop in crime and general mischievous activity on campus.