It seems that Nicholls is doing everything it can to eliminate personal responsibility in the last few years, and maybe it always has, but we are just now noticing it.

We have banned tobacco, restricted parking, mandated meal plans for residents, limited dorm guests, restricted our printing use and installed new security cameras.

Once of the reasons we banned tobacco was because tobacco-users would not take personal responsibility for their habits. Nicholls policy makers took it upon themselves to ban it all together. Why? Was there no other solution?

Why not force tobacco users to accept responsibility if they refuse to do it? Hand out tickets to smokers who smoke out of bounds or leave butts on the ground or fine tobacco chewers who spit on the ground. It sounds like a better way to teach personal responsibility and make more money for Nicholls.

Instead, Nicholls took out the freedom to kill our lungs, teeth and gums all together, an American right now lost.

We also have restricted parking, which is perfectly normal for a college campus. Students can only park in certain areas at certain times, and the same goes for anyone else. Our parking decals are not even that costly when compared to other universities. But still, students complain.

Now, we have resolved the issue of students parking where policy makers do not want them by booting their cars. Now students cannot go anywhere.

Why not change that policy too? Why not have, instead of restricted parking, assigned parking? Charge students more for their choice spots. Make more money that way since students are refusing to park where they are told.

Why does campus not have a bus? If students are so tired of walking, charge them a bus pass fee to commute across campus.

Instead, Nicholls has decided to be as lax as possible and have free-for-all parking that very few seem to be happy with. Every student is charged the same no matter where they park.

Residents, on the other hand, are specifically targeted when it comes to meal plans. They are obligated to purchase one. Why? Can they not be responsible to feed themselves?

Obviously it is just for Nicholls to make more money, but the cost is not worth the loss of freedom to eat when you want, what you want. Students can pay the amount required to live in a dorm with a meal plan to live off campus without losing their basic freedoms.

Residents also have limited dorm guests. Guests can only be checked in at certain times and have to leave before it gets late, typically about 9 p.m.

Are students not adult enough to be held responsible for their guests?

Even our basic printing use has been restricted. We have to pay for each sheet of paper printed, whereas before we had a set amount of 100 pages before we had to pay.

Are trees such a commodity these days? Is printing really raising that much money for school? Can we not find a more efficient way to raise money?

We have also added more security cameras, which sounds like a reasonable measure in the name of safety, but were the security cameras we already had not enough? What exactly prompted the need for more of them?

We are not criminals, and as adults, we surely understand the concept of personal responsibility.

Nicholls is considered one of the safest campuses in the state already.

When did it become our prison warden?