Community standards have always been a hot issue of discussion at Trinity Western University. What are students allowed to do? What are the restrictions? What of the grey areas that cause confusion? These questions are now being officially addressed by a TWU Student Association council.

A survey is being compiled by TWUSA members Alison Fraser, VP of Student Relations, Executive Vice President Kerala Levitt and Business Representative Jason Brandl; all are members of the larger TWUSA Community Standards Committee headed up by Provost Dennis Jameson.

The survey will focus on student opinions towards community standards and their compliance with the existing rules.

“We’ve been hearing a lot from students that there’s a lot of ambiguity about what they’re allowed to do, what they’re not allowed to do,” said Fraser. “There are a lot of students who want to adhere to [community standards] but they don’t know what that even means: are they allowed to go to clubs? Are they allowed to drink at Christmas? Are they allowed to drink over the summer?”

According to Fraser, the main focus of the survey is to pursue TWUSA’s goal of hearing what the student body is saying about issues and acting on those findings. Specifically, that whoever is affecting a particular issue, whether Student Life or the Administration, is heard by the students.

“I think this is a chance for students to just come together and speak into what community standards mean to our school and what it means to them personally,” said Fraser. “And if anything, I think it’ll be great for people…to clarify what the school stands for and what they signed on to.”

TWUSA hopes that the committee will be able to better address the concerns of the student body. “Some [students] are passionate about making sure we are living in a Christian community, but some of them don’t believe that [community standards] is the best way to go about that,” said Fraser.