It’s no secret that most Kenyon students follow a “work hard, play hard” attitude. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Friday and Saturday nights often find the campus filled with the sounds of alcohol-fueled parties from Old K to Bexley. For people such as myself who generally have no interest in drinking or partying, Friday and Saturday evenings become a time to stay inside with a hot cup of tea and a good movie or book. But, what happens when your room is in Old K, and people have filled the surrounding rooms and halls with the sounds of their reveling?
If you Google “Kenyon substance free housing” or “Kenyon wellness housing,” you’re directed to the housing options page of the Kenyon website. Scroll down and you’ll find a few paragraphs about Wellness Housing, which “offers an additional measure of support for those individuals who choose not to drink or use drugs.” Students who live in Wellness Housing pledge not to use alcohol, tobacco, or any other kind of drug. Wellness residents don’t have to worry about noisy neighbors or having to Good Sam the kid down the hall.
Sounds great, right? I agree; living in Wellness Housing this year has been marvelous so far. I have several concerns, though. One is that information about Wellness Housing is so hard to find. The information on the Kenyon website doesn’t provide information about how to join Wellness; I only knew about it because my obsession with checking my email led me to stumble upon the single (and easily overlooked) student info email sent out last February. Most of the other sophomores (then freshmen) that I talked to about it had no idea it even existed. The students in charge of the Wellness program are responsible for advertising and “recruiting” members, and with the busy schedules students have, it’s not surprising that information about the program is limited.
Another issue I have with the program is the lack of inclusion for freshmen. Yes, I know that “there is already a strongly enforced expectation that first-year halls at Kenyon College are ‘alcohol and drug-free,’” but let’s be real—first-year halls definitely see their fair share of drugs and alcohol, regardless of the expectations set by the administration. The only way to be certain that an area will be substance free is to fill it with people who have volunteered to do so. Why isn’t a portion of one of the first-years halls set as designated freshmen Wellness Housing for those students that really don’t want to engage in such activities? Half of one floor of Lewis would do. Perhaps most concerning is the Kenyon administration’s attempts to downsize Wellness Housing. Emma Easley, who serves as Co-President of Wellness, has battled with the Office of Housing and Residential Life to get Wellness the space it deserves. This year, that space includes both the ninth floor of Caples (the traditional home of Wellness) and one of the apartments over the new Market. Current juniors who lived in Wellness as sophomores and wanted to continue doing so now live over the Market and current sophomores live in Caples. However, even after Emma’s work last year, Housing and Res Life agreed to give the Market apartment to Wellness only for the 2017-2018 school year. It is likely that trouble lies ahead in attempting to secure this space again for next year; even though the Wellness floor of Caples was entirely filled last spring, transfers and room changes left a few beds empty this fall. Wellness turned away nine applicants for this year’s housing last spring, but once people have settled into their rooms in the fall, they’re unlikely to be willing (or able) to relocate even when space becomes available. Thus, it appears to Res Life that there’s a lack of interest in Wellness housing and that downsizing wouldn’t be unreasonable. There’s also the fact that though juniors and seniors may wish to continue living in Wellness, they can find much more desirable housing options outside of Caples. Even if those upperclassmen did return to live in Caples again, that shuts sophomores out of the opportunity to live in Wellness. The root of the problem is this: Wellness Housing is a safe space, and the Kenyon administration fails to treat it as such. They want to downsize it due to a “lack of interest,” but let’s look at the situation another way. Say that when the Class of 2021 filled out their housing forms this summer, only five female students marked that they wished to live in a girls only dorm. Would the administration have ignored these five students and populated Norton with both male and female students? Unlikely. Gender neutral bathrooms are another good comparison; even if only one student in a particular dorm expresses an interest in having a gender neutral bathroom, that bathroom still exists. That student’s need for a safe and comfortable environment is still met. Wellness Housing extends beyond students who simply desire to live away from noise; some Wellness members may be recovering addicts who need to stay away from substance use, or they may have other reasons to be triggered by drugs and alcohol. Regardless of the reasons behind it, students who want to live in a guaranteed substance free location should be taken seriously by administrators. As a school that strives for equity and inclusion, Wellness is another safe space that Kenyon should address seriously.