Irony at Asbury
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I started smoking when I was a student at Asbury College. Asbury prohibits smoking, drinking, dancing, and hanging out with anyone who’s hip. It is ironic because, in a sense, Asbury’s rules were the catalyst for my smoking.
My reasoning was this: I was very depressed over being amorously rejected by a classmate of mine, and I wanted a good buzz. Two or three beers beyond tipsy. (I rarely even get tipsy, by the way. This was a point of weakness, not a habit of mind.) The rules being what they were, I risked automatic expulsion on the spot if I was caught. So I decided instead to get a pack of cigarettes to get my buzz on. Still outlawed, but I would get counseled and offered help to quit if caught but not expelled.
I don’t blame Asbury for my habit, but it is still funny that I smoke because I went to Asbury.
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7 Responses to “Irony at Asbury”
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September 11th, 2004 at 11:30 am
I agree. I probably became Orthodox because I went to Asbury as well. The Protestant culture of it was too much for me. It’s also interesting to me that when the Nazis put on their big anti-smoking campaign, smoking increased in Germany. Demonization of the “other” is either completely accepted by people or pushes them away. For me, it was the latter.
September 12th, 2004 at 10:37 pm
Nice to know theres another smoker out there! Damnable habit… I hate it. Down to less than a pack a day, now. I only went to cigarrettes because cigars became so expensive in the early 90s!
September 13th, 2004 at 8:54 am
speaking as a former member of the “Asbury Gestapo” as RA’s were so often called, i have to say that i both agree and disagree with you on this:
Agree: Asbury’s rules were restrictive on behavior, perhaps pointlessly so in some respects. This is part of the reason I ended up tranferring to another school.
Disagree: You smoke “because” you went to Asbury. Unless I am mistaken, nobody “made” you start smoking. That was a choice you made–perhaps a very understandable one. But if Asbury’s constrictive rules bothered you so much, you could have done what I did and transferred to a less contrictive school. Bethel doesn’t allow smoking or drinking either, but there’s no dress code and no curfew, which made my senior year tolerable at least.
For the record, too, you probably wouldn’t have been expelled for 2 or 3 beers. When I was an RA, a student on my hall came home one night falling down, vomiting all over himself, smelling like a brewery drunk. My RD left the course of action up to me. He graduated from Asbury that year.
September 13th, 2004 at 10:01 am
You should go there now . . . the rules have changed.
September 13th, 2004 at 12:30 pm
Fascinating. Pete, I said I didn’t blame Asbury for my habit, because it is indeed a choice I made. However, the causality of persuasion is still causality.
MHG, in what way?
September 13th, 2004 at 5:44 pm
Yeah, when I was VP of SGA and Student Body Pres there, I had to serve on the appeals committee. If people got expelled, they had the option of appealing the expulsion to a committee with a couple student government types and a few faculty-staff. From my experience, the committee was not incredibly strict. In all of the decisions of which I was a part, they actually acted quite reasonably. Of course, I was only there through two years and only sat through three expulsion appeals. Speaking generally, one got off with a 2-week suspension, as expulsion was not deserved. One was expelled on grounds that would have gotten someone expelled at ANY school. The third was more questionable and I still question whether expulsion was the right choice or not. However, serious laws were broken and that seemed to seal it. Still, it seems to me that it’s not as easy to get expelled at Asbury as one might think.
September 13th, 2004 at 5:56 pm
Hmmmm, expulsion at Asbury . . . you wouldn’t be referring to the time when the majority of the “movers and shakers” in the senior class all took part in a drunken broo-haha (however you spell that)? Whose party was that? Didn’t he come out of the closet shortly after that? Didn’t he threaten to sue Asbury for defamation of character? And isn’t he also in jail now for embezzlement?
What’s his name?
Anyway . . . Asbury no longer sells Ale8!!! Can you believe it? They also allow screen printed t-shirts. Dancing is allowed, so long as it’s at a venue where alcohol isn’t served.
Fire and brimstone I tell ya . . . fire and brimstone. 😉
Oh . . . and SGA blew. Hehe.