Hello Editor,
For more than a healthy chunk of the student population of Citrus College, the Campus Center provides a welcomed relief from the trials of learning and proving that knowledge has been gained.
With couches, TV’s, foosball and tables galore, it’s the heart of the campus for more than just its central location.
It provides a space to relax, either alone or with friends, and enjoy those sparse-or in other cases, far too long-periods between classes.
Whether it’s to catch up on sports, settle foosball vendettas or just to polish up before an exam, the Center provides the place to do so.
Until just recently these services extended to the use of meeting rooms for clubs and study groups.
However, unless you’re ASCC or a club you will be denied a request for a conference room.
The reason for this: certain students managed to do approximately $900 of damage to the resources specific to the rooms.
While the blanket ban of student access is understandable, it is hardly evenhanded or reasonable as it’s actively committing the fallacy of hasty generalization, which is to say in this case, punishing the whole for the acts of the few.
An alternative to this can easily be found.
While the reasoning used to impose the blanket ban policy was faulty, it arose out of genuine concern, namely that as no one stepped forward to accept responsibility for the damages, it leaves the Campus Center, which is funded near entirely from those little stickers on the backs of hopefully most of your ID cards, liable for costs it simply can’t spare.
This is a shame as the brunt of the damages was done to resources recently acquired for all of our use.
The answer is simple: provide a way for the student asking for the room to accept responsibility for keeping it intact.
It is rather sad this must be implemented rather than just be understood among all of us students, but such are the circumstances.
The how is simple, a basic binding form to be signed accepting the responsibility of the room’s safety by the student who wishes to reserve the room, to be signed once and filed in the Campus Center’s records in the event of an incident.
This will mean that whoever asks to use the room will be accepting legal responsibility for it should they, or someone in their group, do damage.
This will likewise mean that the campus host will need to keep a list of those who’ve already signed the form, as well as a checklist confirming the room to be in order at check-in and check-out.
Now some may be asking what if some stranger just wanders in and refuses to leave, possibly committing damages themselves?
Fetch the host after making it clear that the ‘stranger’ needs to leave and have Campus Safety called.
Naturally none of this can replace or make amends for the damages already suffered, but this will help the Campus Center’s rooms be more secure in the future.
As sad as it is that its come to this, I believe this provides a diplomatic solution of how to safeguard future student use of resources as well as a refutation of the current irrational though well intended policy, which is impeding helpful facets of campus life rather than enabling them.
Best Regards,
Austin Gaydosh
