Imagine sitting in your room on any given Thursday night. It’s around eight, and you just got out of class and are ready for an evening of relaxation.
We’ll even assume that you are living in a dry dorm and you aren’t possessing or consuming alcohol.
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You turn on MTV and there is actually a music video playing (unlikely but work with me here). All of a sudden your favorite music video shows up, you turn up the volume and your roommate joins you for a little dance party.
You’re releasing your stress from the week and all of a sudden you hear a knock at the door, a knock of authority.
Your roommate and you immediately turn to each other and slowly walk to the door with trepidation. Two RAs are standing out there.
Fortunately, you aren’t storing any alcohol in your room, so you are sure that you’re in the clear. However, the RAs inform you that you have broken a campus rule, and this will serve as your first and final warning. The next time you are caught in the act, you will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
What is the rule you might have violated, you ask? Dancing. That’s right, no movement below the waist is allowed.
Now, fortunately, none of us need to worry because I assure you that UT has not changed its rules. But colleges, still in 2007, still in the United States, ban exactly this type of behavior.
In an article for The New York Times Magazine, Mark Oppenheimer recently reported about an incident like I described to you happening to a student who eventually became student body president of John Brown University.
As I read ‘The First Dance,’ which described the first dance in the school’s 90 year history, I realized how much we take for granted here at UT.
This year, ResLife has vested in me the powers to help enforce campus policy. I found it laughable to think that I could ever be expected to patrol the floors of a residence hall in search of dancers. But dancing was hardly the tip of the iceberg in terms of rules at John Brown University.
In addition to dancing, ‘smoking, sex outside of marriage, drinking and gambling’ are all not permitted as party of JBU’s ‘community covenant.’ Actually, some dancing is allowed ‘- only if it is square or folk dancing or is part of a dramatic production performed on campus.
Imagine the trouble that my fellow RAs and I might encounter if UT were to implement these policies on campus.
I guarantee you that student enrollment would plummet, and incentives like free tuition, room and board plus salary would not lure more than a handful of applicants for the RA position. I realize that JBU is a religious-based university entirely opposite UT, but in 2007 I still find it hard to believe that such rules can still be in place within the United States.
Students’ rhythm has not been entirely shunned from campus because JBU hosted its first dance in December, and a relaxation to the dance rule is likely to continue.
While many students had never experienced many of the activities forbidden under the covenant, most admitted to Oppenheimer that they had danced in high school and did not find dancing ‘sinful.’
The dance was popular but well chaperoned (that’s right, chaperoned dances at college). The university’s president agreed that dancing could help students network and be ready for the real world.
While hip-hop dance is not likely to be permitted at JBU any time soon, students there can expect a more relaxed policy and also explore the dance scene outside of the campus walls.
Dancing aside, reading about JBU makes me appreciate UT and the freedom it offers. I hope that it helps you appreciate it too.