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I agree. Don’t needlessly limit your options before you even arrive on campus. Most people who voluntarily live in substance-free housing are weird. Sorry if that offends the PC police, but it’s the truth. You can still live in a normal dorm even if you choose not to drink, no one is going to force feed you alcohol.</p>
<p>^Maybe it’s different at other schools, but here people just get assigned whether they choose it or not sometimes. So it’s not segregated like that with only the “weird” people in sub free.</p>
<p>If you’re reading something the school put out then yeah, they’re going to say it is really strict whether it actually is or not.</p>
<p>Oy…it sounds like I’ll have to do some digging talking to students specifically at LC about the culture of the sub-free dorm.</p>
<p>Technically, it’s the “Health and Wellness” themed dorm, and substance-free is just an aspect of that. I don’t know if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>I appreciate the input. I’m not concerned about my own willpower, I know that even if people around me are drinking or smoking I don’t have to partake. There’s just something that sounds nice about having a quieter place to come back to, a place where i can avoid the smell of pot or cigarettes, or a place where I don’t have to go into the bathroom on a sunday morning and listen to one of my hallmates vomit up the remains of the previous night’s fun. I want to make sure to have friends who will want to find other things to do on the weekend aside from partying. But it’s good to keep in mind that my dorms might not fit my idealizations of them; I’ll have to get a firsthand opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Yeah, substance-free dorms are really for the people that have absolutely decided that drugs aren’t for them and would rather not be affected negatively by others that do them.</p>
<p>My general advice is: if you’ve had your period of experimentation throughout high school and have made up your mind about substances, the substance-free dorms can allow you have to a have a higher quality of living experience by putting you around other “clean” people and not having to deal with the annoyances of others being drunk or high.</p>
<p>However, you’re just going to feel repressed if you haven’t absolutely made up your mind and get tempted to try something. The idea is: you probably want to experiment, but whether or not you actually get your life consumed by substances is very much your own choice. Some people overdo it, some others take longer to make the decision than others, and some dip in and figure out it’s not for them.</p>
<p>If you have to ask, you have not made up your mind.</p>
<p>So I talked to a student at LC and the first thing he said when I asked about the sub-free dorms is that the small walk-in closets are great for hotboxing.</p>
<p>especially at such a liberal campus I get the feeling it’s more of the “not actually” sub free than the “judgmental/repressive” sub free…</p>
<p>hmmm. I think I’ll take the advice to just request a dorm that’s generally quieter and not known for partying. thanks!</p>
<p>Now if only they made a dorm that banned bad tv and video game junkies.</p>
<p>As if EVERYONE in the non-substance free dorms is going to be abusing drugs, drinking til they collapse every night, and chanting satanic hymns at 2 am?
Like emaheevul said, “Sub free is a housing option, not a lifestyle choice.” Living in non substance free dorms doesn’t mean you have to turn into a heavy drinker and partier. In the end, it’s always still your choice.</p>