2008 Woodie Awards
The Collegian Weekly: Hunting for a clear weapons policy
The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Opinion
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A student expelled last week never wanted to be famous on Hillsdale College's campus.
He merely aspired to half-fame, which he pursued by scaling up the side of Central Hall, by installing a motion-sensitive camera outside his dorm, by tricking his resident assistant out of confiscating his air soft gun. ("It's a squirt gun," he claimed.)
But this semester, he achieved notoriety when he brought a gun into his dorm room because, he said, he wanted to prevent the damp weather from rusting it in his car trunk.
So ended his time here.
Although students may miss his temerarious stunts and daredevil personality, The Collegian believes administrators made the right-but-tough choice in expelling him.
Students must view the decision in light of the times.
Last year after the Virginia Tech massacre, that school's administration found itself lambasted for ignoring warnings. And those warnings certainly were not even so daunting as a gun in a dorm room.
This is not to say the expelled student was dangerous. But the Collegian acknowledges he liked to live on the other side of a commonly accepted line.
But the deans are burdened with the responsibility of keeping the entire campus safe.
Imagine the racking they would endure if a crisis did arise, and they had permitted a student with a gun to remain, especially in a case like the most recent one, where past infractions were likely taken into account.
College officials declined to comment on the reason for the expulsion.
But one might say they made the decision with a gun to their heads.
The potential problem is that such decision-making should be consistent.
The residence policy forbids weapons- including firearms, knives, explosives, fireworks, dangerous chemicals and/or other weapons; this includes items such as pellet guns, BB guns, paint guns, air soft guns, bows and arrows, metal tipped darts, etc. in dorms.
The Collegian acknowledges administration for forbidding these items.
He merely aspired to half-fame, which he pursued by scaling up the side of Central Hall, by installing a motion-sensitive camera outside his dorm, by tricking his resident assistant out of confiscating his air soft gun. ("It's a squirt gun," he claimed.)
But this semester, he achieved notoriety when he brought a gun into his dorm room because, he said, he wanted to prevent the damp weather from rusting it in his car trunk.
So ended his time here.
Although students may miss his temerarious stunts and daredevil personality, The Collegian believes administrators made the right-but-tough choice in expelling him.
Students must view the decision in light of the times.
Last year after the Virginia Tech massacre, that school's administration found itself lambasted for ignoring warnings. And those warnings certainly were not even so daunting as a gun in a dorm room.
This is not to say the expelled student was dangerous. But the Collegian acknowledges he liked to live on the other side of a commonly accepted line.
But the deans are burdened with the responsibility of keeping the entire campus safe.
Imagine the racking they would endure if a crisis did arise, and they had permitted a student with a gun to remain, especially in a case like the most recent one, where past infractions were likely taken into account.
College officials declined to comment on the reason for the expulsion.
But one might say they made the decision with a gun to their heads.
The potential problem is that such decision-making should be consistent.
The residence policy forbids weapons- including firearms, knives, explosives, fireworks, dangerous chemicals and/or other weapons; this includes items such as pellet guns, BB guns, paint guns, air soft guns, bows and arrows, metal tipped darts, etc. in dorms.
The Collegian acknowledges administration for forbidding these items.
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