Public Displays of Affection

Public Displays of Affection (PDA) are, basically, excessive kissing, holding, and pretty much anything past that shows adoration, love, desire, etc., and were completely outlawed according to CTY rules. That's not saying it never happened...

It's hard to enforce PDA rules when you've got several hundred sexually deprived teenagers all in one place.

As one of my RAs notably put it (I later borrowed from him when I became an RA), "All clothing should remain in place. And it's no excuse if s/he shows up naked."

Lancaster

LAN: Brief hugging is acceptable, leading to the well-circulated joke "10 seconds and you're pregnant!" Three-second close-mouth kissing is also acceptable. In 06.1 the standard "It's not PDA if a mother can do it to a child without it being incest" was popularized by Molly Brean and circulated among the students.

The rule is possibly the result of arguably over-the-top behavior at Lancaster in 1985, but may have evolved independently at multiple sites over time.

In 2001, a list of "Don'ts" featured "No guys on girl halls or girls on guy halls". Seizing on the double negative, students claimed that this rule would be violated if there was a guys hall that didn't have a girl on it or a girls hall that didn't have a guy on it. The wording of this rule was soon changed.

Actually, at least at Lancaster, two of the actions that can lead to expulsion are still "No males on female halls," and "No females on male halls." All the other actions are listed as verbs.

In LAN of 04.2 a parody of the strict PDA rules were written but was never published for fear of repercussions from crusading parents.

In LAN of 05.1, the MIND class girls were collectively busted for PDA. [Cortese hall] but the RA's didn't really seem to care much about other PDA.

LAN as of 06.1, there were new PDA rules and they were enforced. New rules included: No holding hands, no linking arms, no hugging for more than 3 seconds, no open mouth kissing, no grinding, no slow dancing less than half a foot apart (a.k.a "Six Inches!", and "keeping hands above the equator"). The more absurd of the rules were not enforced as much, such as hand holding and linking arms- thus creating the chance of the "PDA Chain" as first formed on the first day of CTY by Charlotte's hall by holding hands and/or linking arms and forming a chain. However, half (or more) of the RAs didn't enforce these rules, and hand-holding was allowed again (although it was not announced to the students, and the staff didn't find out for quite a while either) after a call to JHU, made after one student petitioned (Molly Brean) and parents complained, the administration for the rule to be changed (Note: the call might have actually come from JHU). See The Lancaster Hall of Shame.

LAN as of 06.2, A "no lying on the grass" rule was applied. Enforcement depended on the RA. Some RAs appeared confused by the new limits. Frank Wang informed my boyfriend and me that there was "No... lying... on the... uh, grass..." like he didn't know what that green plant covering the ground was. The problem with the new rule is that, at Lancaster in particular, people will find ways to make out even when not hidden by two-inch turf.

An odd message appeared on the paper that the RA's read off of at one of the hall meetings in LAN 07.1, stating "One butt per seat, one face per face." The phrase "one face per face" caused an excessive amount of confusion amongst the students, but was later confirmed by an RA that it simply means a student is not allowed to rip the face off of another student and tape it onto his/her own.

Carlisle

CAR.05.1: An activity entitled "PDA" dissapointed many a couple when it proved to be nothing sexier than cleaning up the campus.

CAR.05.1: It was enforced by half the RAs and the other half didn't care. They did allow making out during Stairways to Heaven.

CAR.05.2: Nothing besides hand holding is accepted. NOTHING.

CAR.06.2: Some RAs (Annie, for one) were pretty lax on the whole PDA thing. Others, (Matt, for example) were notorious for busting up couples who were doing absolutely nothing. With the exception of the last Meet Market and the last dance, you could pretty much count on being flashlighted... unless, of course, you're me. But anyway, the grinding rule had the same effect second session as first. The grind line at the first dance didn't get busted, neither did some of the couples, however, girls on my hall came in talking about the "cool-off room" after one dance.

CAR.06.1 and 2: PDA at Carlisle in both sessions, 2006 was pretty much dependent on the RA. The entry above me is right, Matt was a bit paranoid. My girlfriend and I were just standing in the Psychology section of the bookstore, which happened to be in a corner, and he poked his head up and started watching us. When confronted he said you can't trust kids in corners. Slow-dancers were allowed as close as they wanted, though if you started making out or anything else deemed PDA, the RAs would be walking around during slow songs on the lookout.

Carlisle 06.1 and 2: Before the last dance it was announced that any couple dancing "suggestively" would be put into time out, 5 minutes for the first hour, 15 for the second hour and the rest of the dance if after 10:00. This rule was enforced depending on the RA. Some couples/4somes/6somes were warned repeatedly and not put in the penalty box while some couples where never warned and put in the penalty box right away. Being in the penalty box gets you both time out AND an official write up, so that there is a note of it in your file.

Carlisle 06.2: There were a couple of really funny times involving RAs and PDAs. One was during one of the movie activities (Starcrash? maybe Zim) Matt (who was my RA) saw one couple that seemed to be making out and threw a piece of meat that i think came from a hamburger he was eating at them. There were also the many times that Jacob would come out of nowhere during Meet Market to remind us ,in song, that we were "being very well supervised."

Saratoga

At SAR 06.1, there was no lying on the grass 'on top' of each other. Anything else was either accepted or ignored by the RA's as long as when grinding or slowdancing, you could 'see the light'.
In 2005, SRA Felicia brought Tater to CTY. Tater is a stuffed potato that is stuck on the end of a stick and is used to separate too intimate slow dancing, which is where the phrase "Leave room for Tater" comes from. In 2006 session two, the first Saturday Mandatory Fun was called Where's Tater. One of the staff members had supposedly stolen Tater and the activity was to solve puzzles to find out who did it. The original plan included more activities than puzzle solving, but it rained that day so the RAs had to make up puzzles while the students were watching Inspector Gadget. In the end, it turned out SRA Manan had stolen Tater and he was returned. There was no rejoicing.

Siena

LOU 04.1: the RA that was called the "makeout nazi" was duct taped to a lamp post after winning the privilege on casino night while couples lined up to make out in front of him. Same PDA rules as usual.

LOU 04.2: The "no PDA" rule was enforced pretty much all the time, except at dances, where nobody seemed to care if you were making out or grinding.

LOU 05.1 and 2: There was basically no grinding at dances. I think this was more because people didn't want to than that it was prohibited. Sadly grass orgies were prohibited. In fact, CTY'ers weren't even allowed to lie down seperatly on the grass. Enforcement varied from person to person.

LOU 06.1 and 2: no lying on the grass fully reclined or, as was the common joke, you'll be making CTY babies. However, RAs would deliberately turn away when they saw couples making out.

LOU 07.1: No lying on the grass because of "health reasons." Very heavily enforced, but some people (guys) got away with it. There was a lot of making out at the dances and at night. Holding hands and putting your arms around each other, cuddling seemed to be okay. I've only seen one RA comment on PDA. Overall, the RAs didn't seem to care.

LMU

In 2004, RAs began a serious PDA crackdown, especially at the dances, repeatedly separating slow-dancers and grinders of any sex combination.

LOS: As of 2004, there was no intertwining of anyone's legs. Technically, that was breaking rules. Also - holding hands was okay. Pecks were okay. Pecks on the mouth could not last longer than half a second. No making out. Hands must stay in "appropriate" places (this includes not grabbing asses while dancing). Freaking was not okay. Same sex grinding was fine. I saw most of these rules broken in session 2.

Also, these rules were not so well enforced, considering most of the RAs proceeded to break them all themselves.

Loyola Marymount University 06.2 people of the different sex can not lie on the ground together in close proximity.

Hawai'i

At KNE(Hawai'i) 05.2, any slow dancing and most grinding is fine. No kissing, though most could pull off a 3-second closed mouth. Hand holding, arms around each other, etc, fine. Hickies, not, as was proved by one couple, who together ended up with 20-something. (and managed to convince some of the more gulible people that they were bruises from rocks they had gotten while bodyboarding. It was quite funny, actually. -TM)(that was pretty funny. that was the night where there were like 3 or 4 fire alarms at the dance so everyone saw them both covered in white dust from lying on the ground on top of each other. the girl ws in my hall and she had around 20 hickies on her own and got away with it but the site director made the boy had call home and tell his parents. ) I went for 2nd session in 2005 and i remember that there was a lot more PDA out where everyone could see and no one really cared much.

Baltimore

At Baltimore 05.1, ANY PDA set off an alarm for RA's, they would come and ask your names and then call your parents.

Baltimore 06.1, more lenient. All RAs turned the other way, as in a form of "I didn't see it so it didn't happen" usually makeouts happened at the dances.