When I was in college at the University of Kentucky in the 1980s, there was one time when the weather was nice, I was frustrated over something, and I decided to work out in a somewhat secluded area next to the dorm to release some pent up energy. Wasn't long before that dorm's hall director and a couple of floor directors came out to have a talk with me about doing karate by the dorm. Seems I was causing concern among some students so they took their concerns to the hall director of that dorm. Of course, it did wonders for my ego that they felt they needed four people to talk to little ol' me!
But at any rate Asia this is not, and people doing any kind of martial arts in a public place is generally viewed with suspicion.
Something to keep in mind here is the perspective of the colleges. My wife works in the Judicial Affairs office (that's the office that punishes the students who break the university's rules) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she has to deal with issues of safety every day.
A college is mandated to take steps to keep its students safe. And if they err, the colleges will generally try to err on the side of safety, both because of safety concerns and because of the constant law-suits they have to deal with.
Keep in mind that everytime a student gets himself drunk and injures himself, the college gets sued. A female student at a dry campus goes into a fraternity after hours (i.e. when no visitors are allowed), gets drunk and then falls out a 3rd-floor window...the college gets sued. A student, without permission, goes into a building closed for repairs and gets trapped under some shifting drywall...the college gets sued. Colleges have highly public policies and restrictions against hazing, yet whenever a fraternity violates the policies and there is a harmful hazing incident the college gets sued. A student is assaulted on campus, the college gets sued. Someone uses a weapon on campus, the college gets sued.
Colleges have no choice but to crack down on a lot that is allowed elsewhere. And they are given a lot of leeway to do so, including confiscations. They are an organization, and just as companies can make rules about weapons a condition for employment, colleges can make them a condition for attending. Students sign agreements to the policies when they enroll at the college after all (read the fine print).
And even if the dean couldn't confiscate it, the college police/security force can. Here in Nebraska there is not much in the way of state or local restrictions on gun ownership, but students at UNL are not allowed to keep hunting weapons in their rooms. If they want hunting weapons on campus, they have to turn them over to the campus police (which unlike some universities is a fully functional police force with the same training and authority as the city police) and then check them out when they want to hunt.
College policies about weapons are based on safety concerns and built upon incidents that have happened in the past. And of course they generally go by both what is commonly viewed as a weapon and what is commonly treated as a weapon. Nunchuku are commonly viewed as weapons and treated as such by those who own them. Plastic bottles and drumsticks are neither commonly viewed as weapons nor commonly treated as such by their owners. That makes a difference in determining what to disallow/confiscate and what to allow.
Rather than just criticize them as restricting "freedoms", keep in mind why colleges exist and what kind of legal environment they are forced to operate in.
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Glenn
[This message has been edited by Glenn (edited November 04, 2002).]
