The administration’s relationship with security is unsettling. Not in quite the same way as the Obama administration’s relationship with the NSA is unsettling, but close.
The source of my unease is the log book security keeps on who they give rides home on weekends and during the week. My formerly casual interest in this topic turned into real concern on a recent bitterly-cold Saturday night. On this particular evening, I was at the bar, enjoying a drink with a few friends. After finishing the one drink I could afford, the conversation turned to going out to parties that night. My friends contemplated continuing their evenings at any number of privately held parties around Hillsdale’s campus. While I debated whether to join them, the cold weather had me contemplating cuddling with all my pillows and watching Netflix. How could I possibly be expected to go out in that kind of weather?
Perhaps Hillsdale security would be kind enough to come to my rescue at the end of the night. We’ve been told since freshman year that Hillsdale College Security is more than willing to offer rides home to students, whether it be too cold or the students too drunk. It’s no wonder, too. There’s not much else for them to secure around campus; an old Overheard at Hillsdale post quoting the radioing of a mosquito bite comes to mind. I wondered, then, why I’d never used security as a last resort?
Oh, I remember, how can I trust security when I suspect the administration are joined at the hip? The security staff keeps logs of when they give rides to and you would have to be naïve to think that the administration has no interest in who calls in for a ride, if they’re drunk, and if they’re underage or not.
Perhaps it’s the skeptical Hillsdalian in me, but why would security need to keep logs, if for no other reason than to give the administration grounds for intervention, warranted or not? I suppose logs may be a check against any wrongdoings by those on staff and protection for the staff from false accusations, but I digress. The administration’s concern is not unfounded, and I’ll be the first one to say they have our best interest at heart. But like so many rule makers, they’ve forgotten to take into account incentives.
Putting myself in their shoes, I’d think keeping logs might deter students from asking security for rides post-drinking for fear of repercussions ranging from a concerned conversation to disciplinary action. I would argue the incentive is toward drinking in spite of administrative consequences and turning to alternatives, such as getting behind the wheel or walking home in the cold, perhaps even alone. A note on the last one: chivalry may not be dead on Hillsdale’s campus, but it hibernates on most cold winter nights.
If the administration wants to promote responsibility and a trusting relationship between college and students, they would stay out of the logs and do away with them, if possible. Rethinking incentives would go a long way to protecting Hillsdale students in their leisure time, offering work experience to the security staff, and getting me away from Netflix to enjoy real social interaction.
