A negative reputation has been attached to this year’s first-year class, largely due to rumors of rampant drug use and reports of bizarre cases of vandalism in their residence halls. A wide – and alarming – variety of illegal drugs has reportedly been circulating among the first-year students, including marijuana, acid, mushrooms, ecstasy, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription pills like OxyContin, Xanax, and lots of Adderall. This list was provided by two first-year students, Jonathan Richter and Alice Reville, and Alyson Kienle, associate dean for Campus Life and director of Residence Life and Judicial Affairs in Campus Life.

Some bizarre acts of vandalism have also been committed in Milner Hall, a residence hall exclusively for first-years.

“There have been incidents, specifically in Milner, of people spreading feces all over the walls (in the bathrooms), and it’s happened more than once,” said Kienle.

“They had a meeting for everyone in Milner about people being crappy to the dorms,” said first-year Meredith Ward. “Everyone was messing up the bathrooms, stuff like feces on the wall in the men’s bathroom, someone ripped off – or did something – to one of the phones outside of Milner, and someone threw something glass, I think, because it broke down the stairs.”

Kienle also said that a student removed a sink from a wall in a Milner bathroom.

The drug problem within the first-year class is less obvious, and the academic performance of this first-year class was not significantly worse than last year’s.

Nineteen traditional first-year students were suspended or dismissed from school in the fall for academic reasons, compared to 21 in 2005. Forty-eight first-year students were placed on academic probation, seven more than last year, but there are also 47 first-year students on the dean’s list, an increase of two.

Only two first-year students were suspended in the fall for disciplinary reasons, while an additional student was asked to move off campus. According to Kienle, these came after the students accumulated several judicial charges.

Even though the numbers don’t show a much livelier class then last year, a change has begun to show on campus, and not just on the walls of Milner.

According to Student Health, 16 emergencies, of all kinds, occurred on campus before winter break, compared to eight at the same time last year.

“We haven’t seen any more overdoses come through here than in previous years,” said Helen Rice, director of Student Health, “(but) there were a few more questionable alcohol poisonings the first week of this year than last year.”

“There were three ambulance calls within the first week,” Richter said. “I’ve heard on other times, even on weekdays, police or maybe ambulance sirens right outside my window.”

“I’ve seen our class continually decreasing, and it’s happening pretty rapidly too,” Richter said. “At the beginning of the year, we had so many freshmen that we didn’t have any lounges in the dorms, and now every floor (of Binford) has a lounge.”

According to Kris Gray, residential housing coordinator, there are now 38 first-year students living in single rooms in Binford and Milner.

Reville said that she was friends with at least one student who was dismissed from school because of drug use.

“I knew that there were drugs at every college but I thought it was kind of a weekend thing,” she said. “With my friend that got kicked out, you could walk into his room on Tuesday night and he would be doing drugs, which I was shocked by.”

“You see people out and about wired at three in the morning,” Richter said, “and it’s not because they’re just really energetic.”

Rumors about drug use and vandalism among first-years have also begun to circulate outside of the first-year class.

According to sophomore Kevin Thomas, there is a story circulating around the first-year and sophomore classes about a first-year student who took acid and got arrested while protesting in front of a church in the middle of the night.

“From what I’ve heard,” said sophomore Shepherd Lashley, “the freshmen have been absolutely out of control – breaking things in Milner, and other destructive tendencies.”

Alyson Kienle said that a small group of first-years has given the rest of their class this reputation.

“I’d say that some of the few people that were causing most of those problems are already gone or on their way out,” Richter said. “It was the same way in high school. How many people did you know that did (drugs) every day and still made it all the way through?