This is the first part of a two part series examining the University’s problematic bag check policy. Today’s blog will focus on the problems from a student perspective. Next week, I will concentrate on the employee’s perspective.
Spring is in the air. The sun is shining, frisbees are flying, and students’ backpacks are being searched.
On Thursday (three weeks and one day before OK GO plugs in their treadmills), the University commenced prohibition the annual bag check policy in preparation for Spring Fling. Students must now open their backpacks so that no alcohol is brought into the Quad. This is to “ensure that the experience is a pleasant a memorable one” for me. (They may actually have a point about an alcohol-free Fling being more “memorable.”)
Practically, the strategy is fundamentally flawed (besides being ambiguously legal). On Wednesday, the University sent e-mails to all Quad residents letting them know that the “all bags coming into the Quad will be checked from Thursday, March 20 at 8am through Sunday, April 13 at 10am.” This e-mail might as well have read: “Time to whip out the fake ID’s and bribe your older siblings, freshmen! Only one more night to sneak your favorite beverages into the Quad!”
On the bright side, the policy is a great way for Penn students to flex their innovative muscle (I suppose heavy coats in 60 degree weather aren’t at all suspicious). There’s something beautiful about students from all walks of life coming together for a common cause, even if its smuggling liquor into their rooms.
If University officials truly believe that the bag checks do anything more than inconvenience law-abiding Quad residents, then they are as naive as Congressmen who think that a fence and more guards at the border is the solution to illegal immigration.
Tags: booze, Fourth Amendment, Spring Fling
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March 25th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
right on.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Nice title…keep fightin’ the good fight.
P.S. Can I write you in for Class Board Pres?
March 27th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Yes, there certainly is no shortage of booze once the weekend rolls around. I wouldn’t be surprised though if the point of the policy was not to curb drinking and therefore “destructive behavior,” but just to be able to say that the University cares about curbing destructive behavior. Which it does - as long as that doesn’t involve exercising any authority or telling anyone that a certain behavior is wrong.
As irreverent as you guys are, you’ve done a great job lately pointing out the silliness and/or hypocrisy of much of the University’s alcohol policy.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
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