Acorn

Here�s an idea for a new theme house: No alcohol, no drugs and a general health and wellness education environment. Sound interesting to you? Freshman Katie Chambers has found 21 students you could live with in substance-free housing after your freshmen year.

Chambers is attempting to create a substance-free living environment for upperclassmen.

�Holloway is kind of seen as sub-free for upperclassmen, but you are usually grouped with mostly freshmen. I think it�s important as you go through college to have the ability to live in a comfortable environment with people your own age,� she said.

Chambers is starting a two pronged effort in making this idea a reality. �I�m trying to see if I can get a floor to be substance free, or maybe create a theme house. I�m willing to try either one,� she said.

At the moment, substance-free housing is available on the first floors of Tolley and Holloway Halls. However, both floors, especially Tolley 1st, are predominantly freshmen.

Substance free living requires floor residents to abstain from drinking alcohol or abusing any other substance. It also fosters a general health environment.

�It�s kind of a place to feel comfortable and safe if you don�t want to drink all the time to have fun,� Chambers said. �There are so many other ways to have a good time, and still remember it the next day.� Chambers has already found 21 students interested in living on an upperclassman substance-free floor if it were created. The number is not too small for a theme house, many of which house almost 20 members.

�I think if we made it a theme house, it would be a little different,� Chambers said. �I think with a theme house you need to go through an application process. I also think that we would be stricter with the rules if we created a theme house for this purpose.�

Chambers added that if the floor were to become a theme house, educational programs on health and wellness would be a huge part of its existence.

Other students have voiced their approval of this idea.

�I really enjoy living on a sub-free floor,� freshmen and Holloway 1st resident Vincent Gamuza said.

�It�s a very welcoming environment and a tight-knit community.� Gamuza listed himself among the number in favor of the floor.

On the administrative side, Chambers is still in the early stages of making this a reality.

�I still have to meet with [Undergraduate Housing Coordinator] Bob Meade about the idea,� she said.

�I sent a couple of the administrators, including Meade, an e-mail talking about my idea, but so far I�ve only heard from [Associate Dean of Educational & Student Affairs] Frank Merckx.�

Chambers met with Merckx yesterday to discuss the possibility of creating a substance-free theme house or floor.

According to her, in a reply to her e-mail Merckx said others had tried to create such a floor in the past but they could not provide enough student support to fill the floors.

�I�ve got the students, and we have enough for a floor, and definitely enough for a theme house,� she said.

�I want people to feel comfortable being here on the weekends when most of the campus is partying. I love it here at Drew, and if there has been any sort of disappointment for me here, it has been the amount of drinking.�

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