As a new school year starts, so do many AU campus restrictions. This is expected and rational. Any institution – big or small, school or business – must have standards and rules in place to keep the majority of people safe, comfortable, and happy.

It comes as no shock, however, that many students do not enjoy the regulations placed upon them. Students are told that when they go to college it will be “the time of their lives.” One of the biggest pitches for not going to community college is that a student will no longer live under his or her parents’ roof. Students often see this as an opportunity to become independent and live their lives with no restrictions.

Thus, it is expected that students will feel a little cheated when they realize that they are out from under their parents’ wings and shoved right back underneath AU’s, especially when some of Ashland’s rules are stricter than any parental ones. Students should know about these rules going in but, let’s face it, sometimes we don’t always read the packet before signing on the dotted line.

So how do the students, as well as Ashland, find a happy medium?

Some students choose to act out, disobey the rules, or even vandalize property. Sure, it isn’t their personal property, but AU is the one who has too many boundaries, right? So they’re asking for it.

If you keep the leash short, the dog gets mean. Unfortunately, as soon as students destroy property or break rules, Ashland retaliates. They have to. Parents and guardians would be furious if they find out that students don’t have to suffer the consequences for their dangerous or reckless actions.

As soon as one student does something horrible, the whole student body suffers. If it’s something Ashland already has a rule about, then everyone gets scolding emails, rewards offered, or worse, more privileges taken away. If it’s something new that Ashland doesn’t have a rule about, then a rule is made almost immediately and restrictions, of course, apply.

Students deserve to have fun and should be given every opportunity to create and explore. However, in a world where the parents and administrators are constantly hovering, Ashland’s campus is probably not going to be the place for that to happen.