OK. I'm going to tell you all a little story about how things on this campus, or rather, things in our dorms, can get a little carried away. Maybe not just carried away, but more on the same lines as ridiculous might be a better word for it.
So here I go. Here's my story. I am a member of the Women's Club Soccer team here at Penn State. We practice about four to five times a week, so needless to say my equipment, really my shin guards, doesn't exactly smell like roses. So when I get home from practice, one of the first things I do is remove my shin guards from my bag and put them in the hallway so my roommate and myself don't have to deal with the stench permeating off them. It's the easiest solution and the most logical. Keeping my shin guards in my room — yes, the very small cubical of a dorm room I reside in — would not only kill my roommate and me but also anyone else who enters our room for even a brief second.
However, on one early September evening there was a knock on my door. It was the resident assistant on duty and he asked me to take my shin guards out of the hallway and into my room. Upon questioning him as to why, he answered that my 12-inch by 4-inch shin guards placed directly against the hallway wall was a fire hazard. I mean, after all, those pesky 12-inch by 4-inch shin guards might catch someone's sneaker, cause them to fall, hit their head and go unconscious long enough for the fire to envelop them and eventually kill them. Of course, my shin guards are such a liability, how could I miss that!
I obeyed the RA despite the obvious absurdity in the request. However, when my roommate arrived home later that evening, she immediately smelled the nasty aroma in our room and demanded that my shin guards be placed back in the hallway.
About an hour after the shin guards were placed back in the hallway another similar knock sounded at my door. It was, of course, the same RA on duty. But this time I wasn't being asked to put the shin guards back in my room, I was being asked for my full name and student ID number because this time I was actually being written up for it. Yes, I was written up for leaving my shin guards in the hallway.
But it doesn't stop there. Because my shin guards were such an obvious fire hazard — you know, kind of similar to all those wet, open umbrellas people leave in the hallway on a rainy day — I was not only written up, but I also was required to make an appointment with the Pollock/Nittany residence coordinator.
At my appointment, the Resident Coordinator explained to me the severity of my action. Apparently, leaving my shin guards in the hallway is on the same level as bringing a weapon to class or anywhere on campus. Yes, I can bring a gun to the dining hall, show it off a little and be written up and still get the same punishment as I would for leaving my shin guards in the hallway.
The residence coordinator continued on and told me that she could've made me make a bulletin board in my dorm lobby. But she felt that my punishment was a little absurd and that forcing me to decorate a bulletin board wasn't necessary. My punishment absurd? Are you kidding me? Why don't we try something more on the lines of ... RIDICULOUS.
Now, don't get me wrong. I completely understand that it's an RA's duty and job to clear the hallways of any material they may find to be a risk or a fire hazard. But I didn't have a box in the hallway like most of us do on move-in day. Nor did I have an open umbrella, huge duffel bag, or anything else in the hallway. I had my shin guards. And yes, they are as big as you might imagine they really are.
What this whole situation calls into question is exactly this: Do people really have too much time on their hands? Sure, it was, in fact, the RA on duty who wrote me up for a fire hazard in the hallway; therefore it was his job to do so. But did he have to take it that far? Did he really find it necessary to write me up, make me meet with the residence coordinator, and almost force me to make my own bulletin board as a punishment?
Somehow I just don't think so.
