I was about to leave my dorm the other day when I noticed something strange. The front door was propped wide open—in the middle of winter with a temperature of five degrees outside.
Now it would be strange to see North Hall’s front door propped open at any time of the year, but especially in winter. The person who propped the door had no real excuse for doing so—especially when dorm entry this year is as simple as waving your RPI ID card near the card reader.
Some might say that the door was only open for a few minutes—what could possibly happen in that short time? Well, in a few minutes a trespasser could easily have gotten inside and burglarized the rooms, vandalized the walls, or damaged the hall lounge.
It is simple common sense that you don’t leave a front door propped open just as you lock your room door and close all the windows when you go out. Personal responsibility is not something to be taken lightly. You need to learn during these four years away at college that independence and freedom are privileges and carry with them a certain degree of accountability for how your actions will affect others around you.
If you smoke a cigarette, others will feel the effects of second-hand smoke. If you regularly litter around the Rensselaer campus it may turn away some prospective students who otherwise would have gone here. If you light a fire in the forest and don’t remember to put it out later, it might lead to a larger, uncontrollable firestorm.
Nobody in this world lives in a bubble regardless of how everything might seem to be at times. The best option is to think about what consequences your actions might have on others around you before you do them—not after the fact.
