Thursday, October 14, 2004

On Vomit Now I don't remember this being such a big issue back in my college days, but then again, I never lived in the dorms.  Marcela, though, does live in a dorm at Grinnell College, and she received this lovely email yesterday stating Grinnell's new policy on vomit. -----Original Message----- From: ********** Sent: Wed 10/13/2004 8:35 PM To: ********* Cc: Subject: On Vomit... Hi East Campus, I'm writing to inform you all on the new vomit policy the Housing office has adopted. You've probably read something about it on Plans but here it is from your RLC. Vomit is now going to be treated like fines for floor/hall damage: the responsible individual is going to have to come forward to claim responsibility for the incident, and if s/he doesn't it's up to the floor or hall to identify the individual. If neither of these happen, the fine will be divided among the members of the floor or hall. This is consistent with the residence life philosophy of individual and community responsibility towards one's behavior and the acceptance of the consequences thereof. RLCs are going to have clean up kits containing rubber gloves and disinfectant available for students to use to clean up vomit, either by the person responsible or residents not wanting to be fined. There will also be paper towels and other liquid cleaner in the student custodial closets. If you or another member of the community wishes to clean up the vomit, you should contact Security at 4600 and have Security contact the RLC on call to get the materials from him/her. If you or another member of your community does not wish to clean up the vomit, you have the option of leaving the mess until Monday or calling Security to have the custodian on-call brought in to clean it up. However, this will result in a fine. A mess that occurs over the weekend is a $65.00 to $70.00 fine (which is the cost of materials and overtime for the custodian). If you decide to clean it up and you do not do a satisfactory job (meaning, from what I understand, there is still vomit residue at the location of the mess), there will be a $25.00 charge. There are worksheets in every student custodial closet detailing how to clean-up a spill. If a spill is cleaned up well, there will be no fine for the individual or the floor/hall. It's only when a spill is not cleaned up or not cleaned up well that there will be a fine. So what's the bottom line? From my perspective, don't vomit anywhere other than a garbage can, the toilet, or somewhere in your room. If you can't make it there, clean it up or tell the individual who made the mess to clean it up. If you don't know who did it start asking around your floor because people don't visit a floor exclusively to get sick: they do so because they know someone on that floor. Find that person, and identify them so they can clean it up or take on the fine so your floor doesn't have to. If you have any questions, please contact ***********, the director of Housing. Thanks everyone, and good luck with the rest of your mid-sems. What are they going to do?  Post mugshots of puddles of vomit?  "Can you identify this vomit?  If so, please call..." Seems to me they bascially want folks to narc out the barfers.  That and they encourage everyone to keep their cookies properly stowed away once consumed, or in the event of their tossing becoming imminent, find a proper place to toss.  Errant tossing of cookies will not be tolerated. You know, I'm glad someone is finally tackling the tough issues facing higher education.  Really, I am. Related links: Vomiting for Peace Alcohol, vomit and other fond memories 7:22:35 PM     |

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