By Sam Mullin ‘18
Staff Writer
In order to eliminate the added stress of wondering if parties are too loud, Merrimack’s administration has created a way for students to register events on campus, which provides for a decreased chance in getting written up.
Students who live in the Apartments, North Residential Village, South Residential Village or O’Brien Hall and have a room where half of the occupants are 21 years or older, are eligible to register an event.
In return for registering an event for the weekend, the host room gets the opportunity to receive free pizza and soda.
Events can be registered Monday morning through Thursday at noon. If students register by Wednesday at noon, they will receive pizza and soda for their event.
The Office of Residence Life, the Office of the Dean of Students, and the Merrimack College Police Department all worked diligently to reconstruct the policy regarding registering events.
According to the Residence Life page on Merrimack’s website, less than 1% of registered events last year ended up being documented.
Students at Merrimack seem to really love the opportunity to register an event.
Phil Gilbride, a senior at Merrimack living in South Residential Village stated, “My roommates and I love the idea of registering an event. We love that we can get free pizza and soda and the chances of us getting in trouble go way down.”
Although Phil and his roommates haven’t registered a party yet, they are looking forward to doing so in the future.
To register an event, students are asked to visit the Residence Life web page and click the link to register an event. Students will then be prompted to view a slide show that informs them on rules and procedures that come along with registering an event.
After viewing the slide show, students are required to fill out a Google Form, which is sent to Residence Life. A Resident Director on staff will then send the students a follow-up email to schedule a meeting.
The first time a room hosts an event, all occupants living in the room must go to the meeting. After occupants of a room have had their first registered event, the sober host is the only person required to go to a meeting with a Resident Director. One person at the registered event must remain sober during the duration of the event.
Along with this, the sober host does not have to be 21 years old. The sober host is the resident whom the R.A.s will be in contact with during the night. They must be available during the entire event and are responsible for answering all phone calls, door knocks, keeping count of the number of attendees and ending the event at 1a.m.
If the sober host at the registered event is a senior, they will be entered into a raffle to win senior week tickets at the end of the academic year.
Before the event starts, students will get pizza and soda from Mr. Takeout paid for by the Office of Resident Life. Additionally, the Resident Advisors on duty will put a sign that states “No Alcohol Beyond This Point” on the dorm room’s door where the event is taking place. Occupants are also given on-duty R.A.s’ phone numbers in case any problems arise.
Because of the fire code, only one apartment per tower, one suite per floor/wing, and one suite per vestibule can take place on campus in one night.
A registered event in O’Brien Hall, North Residential Village and South Residential Village cannot exceed over 28 people and an event in the Apartments cannot exceed over 50 people.
