On a Friday night late last month, "Dry Dorms = Gay" and "Dry dorms are for Asians" were scrawled in blue dry-erase marker on a whiteboard and a wall in Blair Hall.
Though it is unclear who was responsible for the graffiti — including whether the culprit was even a Princeton student — the incident highlighted broader questions about whether students who live in substance-free dorms feel marginalized from the campus social scene or ostracized by their peers.
Despite some social limitations, several sub-free students said they don't feel isolated from students in regular housing.
"I have a lot of friends who are in non-sub free housing," Nate Angel '09 said. He admitted, however, that living in sub-free housing limits his contact with certain social groups, particularly sports teams and fraternities, who "might not fit so well into a sub-free dorm."
To live in sub-free dorms, students must agree to refrain from using "alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco products or incense" while in their rooms, the Housing Department contract states. Students are also forbidden from using these substances elsewhere on campus if it causes them to engage in "disturbing" behavior once they return to their dorms.
Ben Chen '09 also said he doesn't think substance-free housing isolates him from friends in regular housing. While he has never violated the rules, he admitted to occasionally "causing a lot of noise coming back from the Street." But, he said, he has "never had a substance in [his] room that was outside [his] body."
On the other hand, Chen said he knows of other students in substance-free housing who "carry alcohol into their rooms and pre-game there," but added that they refrain from throwing parties.
Mathey College dean Steven Lestition said he has had occasional issues with rule violations but added that they were relatively rare. "We had a few cases of students having alcohol in their room," he said. "We had to explain to freshmen what 'substance-free' meant."
Students choose substance-free housing for a variety of reasons, including better rooms, quieter and more sanitary living conditions, and personal abstention from alcohol.
As an incoming freshman Chen decided that he "didn't want to be in a hallway disturbed by drunk people late at night." His sophomore year, however, he "chose sub-free to guarantee that [he] would get a large room with a bathroom."
Residential college staffs said they are aware of the many reasons students choose substance-free housing and understand that not all students in substance-free housing are alike.
"There is an array of motivations," Lestition said. Some students "don't want the effects of alcohol around their rooms and bathrooms, even if they go to the Street and drink." On the other hand, he said, some "students just don't drink — it may be because of the way they were raised, it may be a cultural thing or they may come from a family where drinking was prevalent and it was a problem."
Ryan Bayer '09, who lives in Mathey subtance-free housing, said he appreciates not having "to deal with large parties and having people throw up all over the bathrooms" and finds that substance-free housing "makes life a little better."
"So why not?" Bayer added.
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