by Cole Hiller
Going into homecoming weekend, myself and many other students were continually warned to watch out for the alumni. We were told tales about the weird behavior of the alumni and how they would even go as far as to not only go into their old dorms, but to sleep in students’ beds! The result of this is the very practical advice: if you don’t know someone, don’t let them in the dorm. These stories are concerning enough, but how true are they? Here’s what some students have to share from this year’s homecoming weekend.
Samuel Cotthoff:
“Oh my goodness, so I was riding the see-saw for the see-saw-a-thon, and this drunk alumni from the late 80s asked us how much he would have to pay for his friend and his wife to get on and ride. For liability reasons, we said “no sorry, we can’t let you on.” He then proceeded to spend 15 minutes explaining a biology lab that he did with frogs and muscles and whatnot. After the story finished, he then lauded us for sticking to our guns and not letting them on (his friends were calling and yelling at him for like 5 minutes saying that they ‘had to go to the sig house’). He also commented on how it was weird to try and talk to someone as I was going up and down on the see-saw (I began to feel nauseous either from the see-saw or our conversation with him). He then proceeded to give us $10 which was great, but man it was weird.”
Anonymous:
“I was walking out of Cowan and this older alumni stopped me and told me I wasn’t allowed to be drinking on campus and started asking how old I was. I let him know it was an energy drink (Redbull) and he backed off a bit. When walking towards the exit, the gentleman with the alumni stopped me while the alumni was talking to someone they knew and said, ‘I apologize for him, he has dementia and he was actually one of the states top 25 attorneys’ but he kept weirdly touching my back and I was not chill with that LOL.”
Anonymous:
“A group of like four or five drunk alumni banged on the front door to Bingham and somehow broke in and proceeded to offer me and my friends sitting in the common room free drinks at Morley’s and also a ride to Morley’s. They also kinda made fun of us for sitting around and assumed we were studying (we weren’t) because we had laptops out, and made comments about that. Then they proceeded to ride the elevator a floor up and terrorize the floor above us; we could hear their loud stomping from below.”
Anonymous:
“I was interacting with an alumnus from my Greek organization over homecoming and he asked what I wanted to do after Centre, and I told him my plans, at which point he told me that it was a horrible idea and that I would make no money and I should basically change my whole life path and do exactly what he does in medical administration. I’m really passionate about what I want to do in life and it just miffed me how an alumni just kinda downplayed and trivialized my whole life path just because he thought I wouldn’t make enough money to make that job worth it.”
These stories have aspects that range from mild and almost amusing to very concerning. It’s important to note that Centre is not responsible for the behavior of all of these alumni, however Centre could be doing things to minimize uncomfortable situations like these. There is one thing that is pretty common in all of these stories: drinking. I even witnessed this as I was heading to Norton. As I walked past all of the food trucks, I noticed a very distinct alcoholic smell.
While Centre is not responsible for the behavior of individual alumni, they are responsible for who they bring on campus, and should not be putting students in a position where the alumni are being disruptive, making students uncomfortable or humiliating them in any way. Allowing alumni to be drunk just enables this behavior. Then there’s the power imbalance that can be in play when an older alumnus interacts with a younger student, especially if that alumnus is drunk.
Yes, there is a lot that the college cannot predict, but that does not change the fact that the college has control over the environment in which students interact with the alumni. The college can make efforts to make a comfortable, safer space and stop enabling this issue. For instance, they can make sure that students only interact with alumni at official events.
This suggestion is obviously impractical, but when students are going into alumni weekend scared of the alumni, that should be an indicator that something substantial needs to happen to regain the students’ trust. This YikYak post exemplifies this perfectly:
Students are clearly not excited to interact with alumni, and this sentiment is perpetuated through YikYak. But the problem isn’t YikYak; the problem is that Centre proves YikYak correct by allowing these experiences to happen each year. Alumni weekend has a lot of potential. Being able to make connections with alumni can be a great opportunity for students, but that can only happen if students don’t fear the alumni.