Residence Life
Rights and Responsibilities
The St. Olaf College Academic Catalog states the following aims and objectives:
- “St. Olaf aims to offer an education that prepares students for self-understanding, vocational usefulness and responsible citizenship.”
As a community devoted to facilitating a living/learning environment, these aims and objectives imply specific rights and responsibilities which must be held in high regard. Mutual respect and consideration, together with an awareness of and sensitivity to the needs of other individuals, must be the standard for group living.
The following rights and responsibilities are intended to define minimal expectations for all residents to ensure the enjoyment of their freedom without placing constraints upon the rights of other residents:- The right: To read, study or sleep free from undue interference in or around one’s room.
The responsibility: To control noise and other distractions that inhibit the exercise of study or sleep by another person.
- The right: To recreate in or around the residence hall.
The responsibility: To modify recreation so that it does not interfere with the rights of others in or around the residence hall.
- The right: To personal privacy.
The responsibility: For the college to maintain such an environment and for students to assist in this effort.
- The right: To recourse, according to prescribed judicial procedures, against anyone who unduly infringes on one’s rights or property.
The responsibility: To conduct oneself in a manner that does not infringe on the rights of others. To initiate action should the circumstances warrant.
- The right: To participate in the process of self-governance.
The responsibility: To be active in the process to insure voicing of one’s opinion or ideas.
The policies that follow recognize and define those behaviors that are central to the development of a caring community on the St. Olaf campus. - The right: To read, study or sleep free from undue interference in or around one’s room.