My first full year here as an undergraduate has been marred by the ubiquity of alcohol; it is difficult to find one thing that epitomizes the campus “alcohol culture.” I’ve recently realized that the big picture concerning alcohol use on campus only appears when one compares many seemingly disparate occurrences.
An examination of a news article in Friday’s Student Life may provide a good starting point. “Kegs banned!” cries the headline of a story about the administration’s decision to ban kegs from WILD. The three students interviewed each claim that the administration is trying to “break down” WILD by ruining the social atmosphere that alcohol presumably creates. One sophomore warns that students might be driven to more binge drinking because of the change. I am saddened when I read such statements, because it bespeaks an undergraduate culture that has become utterly dependent upon the presence of alcohol.
I applaud the university’s attempt at even this small enforcement of its stated alcohol policies. Unfortunately, I am consistently amazed at the ways the university has chosen not to enforce the policy, but actually promote alcoholism among its students. University orientation programs for incoming freshmen include a required talk on “drinking responsibly.” This sounded like a good idea, yet I was unpleasantly surprised when one of the role models at the assembly publicly invited students to give her a call whenever they wanted to get “hooked up” with alcohol. Student Union pledges to help enforce university alcohol policies for underage undergraduate students, yet students on my freshman floor regularly return from the SU-sponsored Happy Hour at The Rat drunk on beer that has been placed on the counter for all comers. These same students regularly distribute alcoholic mixed drinks to hundreds of other freshmen at parties on my floor. When asked the contents, they only reply that “It’ll get you [messed] up!” As soon as they run out of alcohol, they head off to fraternity parties in search of more liquor. Where are the RAs during all of this? They’ve conveniently disappeared for the night.
Few ways exist to escape the tyranny of campus drinking. While the administration purports to be supportive of alternate lifestyles, it does little to aid those students who wish to live an even more controversial lifestyle-a substance-free one. Residential Life only allots a mere 5.3% of its upper-class undergraduate housing as substance free: approximately 124 spots are regularly fixed as substance free out of 2359 total upper-class spaces on the South 40, notwithstanding spaces allotted to RAs. Friends of mine at other universities are confused when I say I want to live in “sub-free” housing-on their campuses, every dorm is substance-free.
Yes, there are benefits to living on a campus where students are held to a high standard of personal responsibility. Yet when inexperienced underage students in freshmen dorms are binge drinking within weeks of arriving on campus and prospective freshmen who visit during the spring and summer are treated to free alcohol by their hosts, one must question the wisdom of the university’s lax stance on underage drinking.
Many students, such as the authors of the recent Sophomore Class Newsletter, feel so comfortable with alcoholic drink recipes that they publish them in campus publications with no fear of possible repercussions. One need not look far to see how they came by the idea that such expressions are okay. All the occurrences I’ve previously mentioned highlight the strong undercurrent supporting alcohol culture at Washington University.
At many universities, on-campus drinking is a big secret that is exposed only when there is a scandal and someone gets hurt. Here at WU, students don’t need to worry about scandal because they have the implicit backing of the administration. Thus, students end up living in dorms which consistently reek of alcohol, the floors sticky with liquor and vomit. Yet few students publicly complain and little is changed. Sure, we like to preserve everyone’s view of WU as an idyllic learning environment. But in truth, we live on a campus that only purports to be in compliance with federal and state laws, while much of the underage population is alcohol-dependent. I urge administrators and campus police alike to stop tolerance and promotion of alcoholism on campus. A scandal should not have to occur before significant steps are taken to end underage drinking at WU.