Human biology freshman Emily Battle was hanging out in her hall with some 21-year-old friends.

They were drinking legally in Yakeley Hall, she wasn't. The next thing she knew, she was headed back to her room with an alcohol violation.

"(Two mentors) came in and said, 'Get out, you've been drinking,'" Battle said, adding that the mentors came in because she and her friends were being "a little loud."

Within a few days, she received a letter accusing her of four violations: Underage drinking, possessing open alcohol in a public place, excessive noise and not discouraging the activities.

"I'm not going to discourage people who are legal from drinking. I'm a freshman, they're not going to listen to me anyway," Battle said.

A policy in Spartan Life states, "No person shall fail to make an effort to discourage another person from violating a regulation and/or to report a violation of which one has knowledge."

Students who are 21 years old or older are allowed to drink in many residence halls. The policy was enacted to make sure underage students hanging out with legal-age friends make it clear they aren't consuming alcohol.

Battle claims it would be hard to know if one student in a dorm room was discouraging an activity.

"There's really no way you can prove that. They don't know what went on - there's a lot of assumptions made," she said.

Director of Residence Life Paul Goldblatt said the main issue is with those of legal drinking age furnishing alcohol to minors.

"If only 21-year-olds are drinking, there should be no problem," he said, adding if the room is cited for any other violations, such as noise, minors who aren't drinking still can get in trouble.

Alcohol enforcement gets hazy, Goldblatt said, when some minors are in possession of alcohol and some are not.

"It really becomes the discretion of the staff, or if (the Department of Police and Public Safety) was called," he said, to determine who's been drinking.

But some students said it's not their responsibility to police their friends.

"I think he should be able to do whatever he wants," theater freshman Zach Begle said of his roommate, who will be turning 21 in a few weeks. "They can do Breathalyzer tests on both of us. If I haven't been drinking, I shouldn't be able to get in trouble for his alcohol."

In response to her violations, Battle must speak with a residence life staff member from her complex, something Holmes Hall complex director Kent Workman said is a normal corrective step.

"There's no one-size-fits-all punishment," Workman said, adding the quantity and location of alcohol play a role in the consequences. "It's a series of things looked at as a piece. Usually the response is a conversation."