The dust has settled and my mind has cleared. But I’m still angry.

After last week’s edict from the Greek Life Office, alcohol is uniformly banned from all official and unofficial Greek events, from a huge party like Black Hole or the foam party, to mixers, to, well, basically, anything.

The reason I am mad has little to do with alcohol. I’m mad because the administration is being ridiculous by refusing to treat anyone in a fraternity or sorority with the respect that Wash U once proudly declared it had. I remember being told freshman year that Wash U treats its students like adults, and allows and relies upon them to make responsible decisions regarding alcohol, among other things. This latest policy could not be further from that principle, and, furthermore, makes this campus a more dangerous place for its students.

The new policy cites one of its main reasons for the policy as the inability of the Greek community to handle alcohol responsibly. When one person drinks too much at a party and needs some medical assistance, is that an individual problem, or the inability of the Greek community to handle alcohol responsibly? I’m not decrying the importance of making safe choices with alcohol or the importance of keeping strict and meaningful laws concerning fraternity parties and alcohol, but there should be an element of understanding that individuals, not groups, make decisions, even in fraternities.

Additionally, rather than saying that the Greek community is unable to responsibly handle alcohol, I would consider it a more accurate statement to say that the entire Wash U community has a problem.

When the University resorts to a social norming campaign trying to convince us all that we really don’t drink that much, there’s a problem. When more students than ever are getting sick from drinking too much, there’s a problem. When the University forbids any alcohol at any Greek event, but still endorses Happy Hour, and our law school, biology lab and a building on the Quad are named after one of the largest beer distributors in the country, there’s a problem.

The hypocrisy inherent in forbidding alcohol for those who can legally drink it at certain student events while sponsoring the very same activity at other student events and also gladly reaping billions of dollars from the beer industry is at least marginally difficult for me to accept.

The University’s inability to realistically and thoughtfully look at the Wash U community as a whole is extraordinarily troubling to me. Policies that affect Greek Life will inevitably affect the rest of the campus; with an undergraduate body of less than 6,000 students, this is not a large campus, and every main aspect of this school is inextricably linked to every other.

Like it or not, fraternities are among the main social components of this school, and changing the way they function will obviously alter the way that people behave on weekends. The fact that this policy was passed exclusively by the Greek Life office, with no other statement or corresponding policy by ResLife or any other main campus organization is appalling.

I would also claim that this new policy puts many students in danger. College students drink. I’ve just said in three words what our administration seems unable or unwilling to accept in such clear terms. The removal of alcohol from parties on frat row won’t remove problematic drinking behavior from our campus; it will only move it to a different location. The 40? Off campus? More underage students illegally in bars? I don’t know, and nobody will until we have some time to see how the policy is enforced and how the student body reacts to it.

I do know, however, that I would rather be very drunk in a fraternity, with lots of other people around to take care of me, than in a freshman dorm, where students may not yet know how to responsibly handle problems that might arise, or off campus, where I’d either have to drive home (unsafe) or walk through neighborhoods that are experiencing more crime than I’ve seen in the past two years (also unsafe).

If drinking is seen as a problem behavior, it must be addressed realistically. To me, that’s exactly the opposite of what our University is doing, and along the way, it’s putting its own students in danger.

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