By DAN ROZEK, STAFF REPORTER
February 20, 2003

A cultural revolution is under way in the far west Chicago suburbs: Wheaton College students, long banned by a strict code of conduct from smoking, drinking or having sex, won a long-sought privilege this week.

They can dance.

Faculty members and graduate students, bound by a similar code of conduct, have been granted some added privileges, too. For what's believed to be the first time in the 143-year history of the evangelical Christian school, perhaps best known for being the alma mater of the Rev. Billy Graham, they are now allowed to drink alcohol and smoke.

That is, as long as they do those things only off-campus and, in the case of drinking, only outside the presence of undergrads.

The changes were announced Wednesday during a chapel service.

They came after the college's board of trustees began looking into whether the school might be violating a 1991 Illinois law that sets limits on how much employers can regulate the private lives of their workers. The trustees decided that adult faculty members and grad students should have the freedom to choose whether they want to smoke or drink alcohol, at least while off-campus.

"Drinking and tobacco use are none of the college's business," spokeswoman Pat Swindle said the trustees decided, when it comes to what the faculty and staff do on their own time.

That was the start. Soon, trustees decided that, even though the law wouldn't apply to their students, a little dancing probably wouldn't hurt.

Besides, the school's 2,400 students already were allowed to square-dance under the school's "Statement of Responsibilities," a comprehensive code of conduct known on campus as "the pledge," which all students and faculty members are required to sign each year.

The pledge hadn't changed much in 30 years. Perhaps the biggest change in recent years came in 1987. The pledge was modified then to apply only to the school year, and not to behavior during summer and Christmas vacations.

But times change, the trustees decided, and the pledge needed to change, as well.

"We quickly found that, when you begin to tweak a 30-year-old policy, you quickly run into huge changes in culture and attitudes . . . as well as vastly different student attitudes, needs and pressures," said Bud Knoedler, a member of the board of trustees who chaired the committee that recommended the changes.

And it's not as if the college has done away with all of its rules, said Swindle, noting, "If you decide to join the Wheaton College community of students, you'll have to go along with the community."

Drinking, smoking, sex and pornography, for instance, are still taboo for Wheaton undergraduates, Swindle said, describing the rules as a "pretty good guide to living."

Undergrads still are not allowed to smoke or drink, even off-campus. Tobacco is hazardous, and most undergrads are too young to legally drink anyway, school officials said.

The old rules had precluded homecoming dances or other formal dances. But, even with the changes, only officially sponsored dances will be allowed on campus, the new rules say.

And they add this general warning: "All members of the Wheaton College community will take care to avoid any entertainment or behavior, on or off campus, which may be immodest, sinfully erotic or harmfully violent."

"What we really wanted to do was spell out what it means to be part of a Christian community that is based upon the Bible," said Don Meyer, a 1957 graduate who is chairman of the university's board.

Though there was talk on campus that some faculty members thought the changes weren't necessary, university officials said they aren't concerned that the changes might hurt alumni donations, and students interviewed Wednesday supported the changes.

"We pretty much think it's a good change, something that was long overdue," said 21-year-old Lisa Nudd, editor in chief of the college newspaper, the Record, which plans to run an editorial supporting the changes this week.

Many students had long viewed the ban on dancing as outdated, Nudd said. "I know I danced off-campus with my boyfriend," she said. "It was nice."

Students didn't really expect or want the ban on alcohol lifted for undergraduates, she said.

"I think a lot of people feel it would be distracting or detrimental if students abused that privilege," she said.

Alums interviewed Wednesday also were supportive of the changes.

"I think it's a good move, a move in the right direction," said Linda Midgett, a Chicago documentary producer who is a 1992 Wheaton graduate.

As a student, she said she questioned the need for the strict code of conduct.

"I really didn't believe, from a faith perspective, it was necessary to have the pledge," she said.

Loosening restrictions on faculty members makes particular sense, she said.

"As an adult, drinking should be decided on an individual basis," Midgett said. "On a biblical basis, there's no mandate not to drink--after all, Jesus turned water into wine."

END

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Alcohol Kills!