A drummer bound by the chains of musical oppression.
Last weekend, while toting their music equipment into the Abbey House common room, several students and alumni encountered Campus Safety. The subsequent misunderstanding resulted in an arbitrary change in policy that belittles the role of students as active individuals. The aforementioned group of students and alumni reserved the Abbey House common room for a joint show. According to REAL’s (Residential Education and Student Living) policies, provided there was no alcohol; this is allowed. On the night of the show, these students began setting up when Campus Safety, doing their nightly rounds, informed them that this was actually not allowed. After conferring with the organizer and the Abbey Housefellow, Campus Safety permitted the show to go on, provided there was no alcohol. Just before the show was about to begin, Campus Safety was searching the downstairs. In the graffiti room, they found two unopened beers. The show began as planned, but Campus Safety informed the organizer of the event that he had not ensured an alcohol-free environment, and thus needed to shut it down. So the event came to an end on account of two unopened beers. While this is technically illegal because the common room is public domain, ordinary protocol would simply have extracted the alcohol from the situation and held whoever they belonged to responsible for their transgression.
What was really at work here was a policy discrepancy: Campus Safety did not recognize students’ rights to gather in the common room, particularly if there was dancing and music of any kind. Yet, REAL’s policy disagreed: if you have reserved the common room, you can use it for any purpose, provided there is no alcohol involved. This is something my Housefellow has verified several times over – both in reaction to Campus Safety’s previous insistence that this is not allowed, and as a proactive movement to assure that I could host a show there on May 5. Following the events of that Saturday night, the two offices have reconciled that discrepancy: as of Sunday, it is forbidden for bands to put on shows in the Abbey House common room.
I was personally screwed over by this arbitrary and immediate shift in policy. I was supposed to host a local New London band on May 5. We’ve been planning this event for months now, and reserved the common room at the end of March. Now this is impossible. While the event was not technically denied permission to go on, it was highly discouraged. Further, REAL declared that live bands are considered private parties, so it would have to be registered.
When I went to REAL to discuss the situation, there was no mention of paperwork or registering the event. I inquired about how this would be possible, but the response elicited was a tacit “this is not going to happen.” I asked why this was the case and the answer boiled down to one phrase: “We can’t trust students not to drink at these events.” Shows have been broken up in the past due to the presence of alcohol, and this incident, no matter how benign, was the last straw.
If we are taking this alcohol talk seriously, I can’t understand why the presence of alcohol should necessarily shut down an Abbey House show. Yes, the first floor is a common space and it is therefore illegal to have alcohol there. But Cro is also a common space where the presence of alcohol is rampant, though likewise illegal. When individuals are caught, the event goes on as planned. Moreover, no one would consider making it impossible for events to be held at Cro because of prolific consumption of alcohol.
That we’re expected to send everything we do out for official approval denies us the power to control our own experience. Common rooms are promoted as student spaces. Yet we have little say as to what happens in them. My friends and I chose to live in Abbey House because of its particular sense of community. The fact is that Abbey feels more like a home to us than any other dorm we’ve lived in. The common room is a place of expression and individuality. Some of the best experiences I’ve had at Conn have occurred here – at live shows and dance parties that took place long before I even decided to live here. These events have always been full of interesting people and far more welcoming than a JA floor party or Cro dance. In many ways my dormmates and I feel violated by this arbitrary new policy. It’s been forced on us in our last few weeks of school, derailing plans we had solidified with members of the New London community.
Abbey House is promoted as an alternative living space, where we have a fair amount of control over what happens here. Yet this supposed power is perpetually being undermined. Normally, we’re completely forgotten. For example, we have a tiny dorm budget, despite the fact that we have a communal kitchen, which requires upkeep. Do you really think a whole dorm can eat breakfast with only five forks? Yet occasionally, like now, we are subjected to rules that contradict how we understand our position in the community.
What’s more, this new policy is hostile to the musical community at Conn. Last year, barn shows were banned. Now, Abbey shows are banned. Will Coffee Grounds be next? The designation of places as not-for-bands strangles the community. These moves tell musicians that they are more disruptive than constructive. Rather than praising and allowing creativity to flourish, we are stomping on it.
Ultimately, the reasoning behind this new policy belies a fundamental misunderstanding of student’s desires. The assumption is that we have these events in order to get wasted. But, for us, this is not about alcohol. The event was never about alcohol. It was about independent creation. It was about the power of individuals to shape their own experience, to hold events that we want to attend, without having to go through an acronymic organization (which, by the by, is hilariously reminiscent of the oppressive USSR). With the implementation of this policy, individuals have been rendered virtually powerless. We can host events of this sort only in the spaces designated by the institution as places-where-this-happens, and only with the support of clubs or other organizations. REAL and Campus Safety have told us that these events are about debauchery. That’s not the case. This was about music, art and intimacy, not alcohol. •
Illustration by Emily Bernstein ’14
I had a similar experience with ResLife in which they did not abide by the Student Handbook but made up their own policies to further deteriorate the situation. They do not come up with appropriate solutions for the problems that they are paid by us to handle. This article beautifully explains the faults with ResLife and ConnColl in general by not supporting the students and taking the easy way out so they can do less work.
Thanks for writing this article Courtney. This incident was one of the most arbitrary assertions of Campus Safety’s power I’ve seen. It just strikes me as incredibly counter productive to shut down one of the few events on campus that doesn’t rely upon alcohol.
Hope this policy gets reversed in the coming year. Abbey shows were some of the best times I had at Conn.