Is the proposed IRHA door policy just furthering the plans of the IRHA taking all your constitutional rights away? No, unless you read and believe what the opinion page of the Daily says. The IRHA has been compared to people the likes of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, for passing a proposal that would allow the house members of the residence halls to regulate their own community.

The proposed policy will allow the members of the house to decide if they want this policy or the current policy of nothing, except for university information.

This proposed policy also allows the house to decide if something in their living community is offensive or not. The Daily has repeatedly stated that the current policy came about because of a Nazi symbol being posted on a door. If they had taken the time to actually talk to the Department of Residence about the policy, they would have found that the Nazi symbols were just a small part of the reasons for the current policy.

The fact of the matter is that one man was almost killed over blatantly racist posters posted on a door, and it wasn’t even his door. Tell the man who had a steel pipe almost crush his skull, that the right of the person who posted the racist material is more important that his right to live. The anything-goes policy was tried and did not work. Yes, it was only a small percentage of people who posted offensive things, but that small percentage caused the whole community to be at risk because of the repercussions of posting offensive materials on their doors. The old policy did not allow the community to deal with the person who posted these things unless they directly threatened another person, the current policy deals with these type of people very effectively by not giving them the option to place things on their doors and the proposed policy will allow the residence hall community (which includes everyone who uses the halls) to have a say in dealing with offensive door decorations.

In a perfect world we would not need to have such a policy, because everyone would realize that along with rights come responsibilities.

Yes, you have the right to free speech, but you also have the responsibility to use that right in a way that does not seek to directly insult, demean or threaten another person, because that other person has rights too.

Everyone who lives in the residence halls has the basic human right to an environment that is free from harassment and threats to their well-being.

As a member of any community, you have the responsibility to protect each others’ rights, by not using your own rights to bring harm to someone else. In closing, I would like to encourage everyone who lives in the residence halls to get involved with this decision by contacting your IRHA representatives to make your voices heard on this issue.

Robert Wiese

Senior

Agricultural Studies

Inter-Residence Hall Association President