Student government are disruptive "do-gooders"

Tradition is important. It connects people to the past and brings together people from a shared background. School traditions are often fun ways to remember your school's history and connect with your fellow students. At a school like RPI, with such a long and interesting history, our traditions tap into times of the distant past. Who doesn’t love the festivities of GM Week or our alma mater song at hockey games? But just because something is an old tradition doesn’t mean it's good. And for traditions that are left behind, there’s often a good reason they were.

Recently, RPI’s student government recently chose to reignite an old tradition of theirs: dorm storming. According to an Instagram post from the student government, the tradition aims to “meet students where they are and try to figure out what their concerns are.” On paper, it sounds like a noble goal for the student government to go out of their way to bridge the gap towards students and get feedback directly from the people they represent. But I don’t think the execution reflects this goal at all. In reality, this tradition involves dozens of members of the student government banging on students’ dorm doors simultaneously and asking them some questions. This tradition is not a simple bridging of a gap between student government and students, but rather a deliberate disruption of the peace in our dorm buildings on campus. I seriously cannot understand how this event was ever brought up, discussed, and actually executed without anyone considering the reality of the situation.

The dorms should be a respected place. Hundreds of students live in each dorm building. Not hang out, not go to class for a few hours, but live. It is and should remain a safe space for students to return after a rough exam or to escape something in their personal lives without having to worry about anything else. When several dozen members of the student government choose to invade this safe space, it invites disorder into what should be an orderly place. Even the name “dorm storming” inherently alludes to the chaos that this action brings. Each and every person that banged on these doors stood mere inches from the homes of these residents, feet away from where they slept. Nothing gives these people the right to disturb the peace inside these buildings.

This is not even mentioning the fact that the target of this event were freshmen, a group of students who are still acclimating to college life. I think back on my freshman year, when I had many stressful days where I came back to my dorm room absolutely spent. I would be bothered, if not terrified, by my space being invaded in such a brazen way. Additionally, for many of the freshman dorm buildings that have hallway bathrooms, there are residents going to and from the bathroom to shower. The last thing I would want to see is a large group of students, many of which are upperclassmen and graduate students, as I’m leaving the shower. Again, how was this not considered at any point during the planning process? It seems so obvious that entering students’ space is an invasion of privacy, yet the event still happened.

It is also important to note that there are rules in place to prevent actions like this. The dorms have key cards to prevent non-resident students and random people from getting into these buildings for this specific reason. Of course, residents are free to let friends into their dorm or study groups into the common area, but several dozen members of a club is a stretch of the rules. On top of that, all of the dorms have 24-hour courtesy hours, where it is expected that the general peace of the dorm is not disturbed. I think it is quite obvious that the actions done by the student government is not courteous of anyone in these buildings and blatantly disturbs the peace. Finally, from the perspective of a club leader, I know how hard it is to put posters up in a dorm building. While I am fully behind the postering policy, as it is important to make sure nothing bad is being put up in a dorm building, it can be frustrating trying to put up a simple flyer for an event and having to wait. While not the same as a poster, many of these “dorm storms” ended with offers to consider joining student government. I cannot imagine that this got approved as an official club advertisement. The idea of banging on a freshman’s dorm door, startling them, and then advertising your organization is deeply predatory. Students should be free to think about joining a club after seeing a poster on campus, not being face-to-face with its members outside of their living space.

If any other club or organization on campus decided to perform a stunt like this, they would immediately see criticism and face punishment. Ironically enough, it would be the student government who would reprimand the offending group. They would, rightfully so, lay out the misdeeds of the group and explain why what they did was wrong. I don’t think it should be any different just because the offending group happens to be the student government. In fact, I think that the body representing the students and acting as role models should strictly follow the rules and be held to even higher standards than anyone else, as their actions going unpunished may invite other organizations to follow after them. This “dorm storming” event is nothing but hypocritical from the student government, as the same rules and ideals which they hold others too are ignored as they see fit.

I don’t want it to come across that the student government is in any way bad or evil. From the few members I know personally to the other things I’ve seen them do publically, I can confidently say that the student government and its members are genuinely good people who want to represent the students and improve our school. I was a member of my student government in high school and, while on a completely different scale, I can sympathize with doing things with good intentions and then falling flat. But intentions only go so far. When you deliberately decide to invade what are essentially people’s homes and cause a racket, all in the name of tradition, you’ve gone too far and your actions deserve criticism.

I hope that, in the future, the student government decides to interact with students here at RPI in a more civil and respectful manner. In doing so, they can develop a better relationship with their constituents and take larger steps towards changing RPI for the better.