File Photo/Arizona Daily Wildcat A student smokes outside of Hopi Lodge Resi-dence Hall last semester. Students living in Hopi this year were asked to sign a less-strict substance-use policy than in years past, and as of next year the the agreement will be eliminated.

Residence Life administrators are taking the "substance free," out of Hopi Lodge Residence Hall's rules by student demand.

Students who move into the hall next year won't have to sign contracts agreeing not to use substances in the hall. Fewer students have been interested in living in Hopi Lodge recently.

Only 30 out of Hopi's 119 residents requested to live in the hall this year, said Patrick Call, associate director for Residence Life. However, he is uncertain whether these 30 residents requested the hall for its substance-free policy. Other contributing factors may have been the cost or location, he said.

Sometime within the next month, Residence Life administrators will meet to begin planning a new program that may appeal more to students.

"We need to look at the declining interest to reinvite Hopi to consider whether or not they're interested (in remaining a substance-free hall)," said Jim Van Arsdel, Residence Life director. "We need to talk to students and see if ideas for the program can be revitalized so that we have more interest."

There are a few preliminary ideas that administrators plan to discuss. One such idea is to create a substance-free theme floor that will parallel the woman and science engineering theme floor in Gila Residence Hall and the fine arts floor in Manzanita-Mohave Residence Hall.

Another idea is to find a new space in an area close to the Student Recreation Center where some sort of substance-free program that would be open to all students could be set up, Van Arsdel said.

Substances are defined as alcohol, tobacco and all illegal drugs.

Whatever administrators decide to do, it will mark a significant departure from the program established twelve years ago. For the first six years of the program, the Hopi community established a range of rules that all residents had to abide by.

For example, students who left the dorm to drink were not supposed to return to the dorm with the smell of alcohol on them, Call said. Also, students were not allowed to store cigarettes in their rooms.

However, over the past couple years, as interest in the substance-free policy has waned, policies at Hopi have not been specific enough to restrict students from storing cigarettes in their rooms or smelling of alcohol. Now students simply sign a contract, promising to abstain from using substances in or around the building.

The substance-free policy has the "same affect on the Hopi community as any other hall because all halls have a substance-free policy." The policy " supports the law of not drinking until you are 21-years old," said Liz Zavodsky, Hopi Lodge Hall Director.

Last year there were four documentations of alcohol violations and two documentations of suspected drug use. However, no students were found responsible, said Call.

There were only two house-complex rule violations. Those students were found responsible.

The decision to phase out Hopi's substance-free program has not only been based on declining requests for the hall, but also it has been based on the mixed feedback they have been hearing from students, Call said.

Mandy Branam, a journalism freshman, requested Hopi as her second choice and supports the substance-free program.

"I like Hopi a lot because I think that people who don't want the substance-free policy don't apply, so it weeds out a lot of people who want to do that kind of thing. I think it's a good idea to have a policy for people who want to adhere to it," she said.