Living in a university residence can be an opportunity for students to meet new people, experiment with alcohol or just have a great night with friends.
For many students, not every Friday night will involve actually leaving the dorms: some prefer to socialize within their own rez building. However, as the student residence contract points out, you’re technically not allowed to have a party unless you have a special permit.
According to Residence Life Assistance Director Tiffany Mintah, “a social gathering with a maximum of 25 people is permitted if it is pre-registered… The private space in individual apartments makes it possible, with necessary coaching, for a resident to safely host a larger gathering without significant disturbance to others.”
Since permitted parties are restricted to suite-style rooms, parties are not officially allowed in Totem and Vanier.
According to the residence contract, a social gathering is considered a party if two of the three following are occurring: seven or more people are present, alcohol is being consumed, or you are noisy enough to attract attention or distract others.
Mintah said this rule is in place because “the size of the room means that reasonably, when a group exceeds seven members, it becomes more challenging for the host to manage the situation -- particularly when alcohol is being consumed -- without disrupting others in their community.”
Of these three points, the most crucial one is if the social gathering is creating noise -- or to be more precise, if it is creating a disturbance.
When asked about any possible flexibility in the “two out of three” rule, Mintah stressed that that the occurrence of a disturbance is what will draw the attention of an RA who would deem the party a problem and subsequently shut it down.
“Usually what draws our attention is that it is causing a disturbance, right? We don’t go knocking on doors to see if there’s a party taking place,” said Mintah. “If it’s not causing a disruption, I don’t know how it’ll be brought to any staff attention to do something about, but if it is causing a disruption, then that is the challenge.”
At UBC Okanagan, the rules behind parties are relatively similar. Suite-styled residences are run by the same “two of the three” rule with the exception of parties that are pre-registered. Parties are also not permitted in first year residences, but unlike UBC residences, there is no specific definition of what constitutes a party.
According to the UBCO Director of Business Operations Shannon Dunn, a social gathering in a first year residence is deemed a party and effectively shut down if it is causing a disturbance.
“What’s driving policy is really about disturbances of other people in the community or other residents in the community,” said Dunn. “If somebody is having a gathering in a traditional building in a small space - in one of the rooms and it isn’t disturbing others, then that’s a bit of a non-issue for us.”
However, Dunn also notes that parties in the first-year residences aren’t as common at UBCO as in the suite-style residences.
According to Mintah, having an outlined definition of what constitutes a party has helped clarify the rules with students.
“I think part of wanting to provide that clarification is why there is a specific definition of that, and so the definition is quite clear.”
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