While many students at the University enjoy partying, there are many other students who choose not to drink. And what better way to avoid alcohol than by staying in a substance-free residence hall?

Snyder Hall is one of the cluster of residence halls in the Ikenberry Commons and the only substance-free hall on campus.

What exactly is “substance-free”?

“Substance-free is basically no alcohol, drugs or smoking inside or around the Snyder hall building,” said resident advisor Ayesha Patel, junior in LAS. “Snyder Hall residents sign a contract at the beginning of the year that they will not use or abuse any substances within Snyder hall and if they do it outside, they cannot come back to Snyder in a state that may be disruptive to other residents in the hall.”

What is different about Substance-free Snyder hall as compared to other halls on campus?

All dorms follow the state law of restricting alcohol consumption to any student below 21 years, said Danny Rogers, resident advisor and junior in Aviation.

“In other dorms on campus, residents who are over 21 years and choose to stay in the dorms are allowed to have a limited quantity of alcohol in their dorms. However, if residents over 21 year old choose to stay in Snyder Hall, they are not allowed to have alcohol or any other substances in their dorm,” Rogers said.

What do Snyder residents do on the weekend when everyone else is having fun?

“Snyder residents enjoy their weekends and have fun too, just without alcohol,” said Indria Clay, resident director of Snyder Hall. “There are groups like Avalanche and Snyder Hall Council that organize events and activities like Broomball, Movie nights or ice-cream days during weekends to give residents an opportunity to have an alternate for a weekend of going out and drinking.” What about people that still like partying?

Many residents of Snyder Hall go out, drink and socialize too.

“Just because I chose to be in Snyder hall doesn’t mean I don’t like partying,” said Karim Virani, sophomore in Engineering. “I like to go out and have fun, but I like coming back to a relaxing environment where drunk people aren’t doing crazy stuff like banging on doors or ripping stuff off.”

Why do residents love being in Snyder Hall?

“The people here are awesome! There’s a lot of human interaction and everyone’s friendly,” said Yuri Kleban, sophomore in General Studies. “The residents don’t drink and if they do they’re very responsible and respective of each other,” he added.

Resident adviser, Ayesha Patel, agrees, “Snyder is much more friendly and open compared to other dorms and this gives you the opportunity to go out, have fun and meet people at various activities and events planned in the dorm.”