Campus sees less boozing
Photo Credit: GoogleImages.com
By Mia Phillips, Contributing Writer
As classes start up again at Gettysburg College for the Fall semester, there is one major difference that students might notice for this year as opposed to last year: the lack of parties on the weekends.
As per Gettysburg policy, “Student social events with alcohol will not be permitted until Sept. 6. There will be no events with alcohol during the time period including the Orientation period, the first week of class, the first weekend after classes begin, and the Greek recruitment period.”
Sept. 6 marks the date where fraternities can register parties, and other social events with alcohol can occur. First-Years are not allowed to be present at such events until Sept. 13.
I’ll be honest: I’m a fan of Greek life. I have a lot of friends who are involved in it, and I like having opportunities to go out to fraternities with my friends and relax after a crazy week of classes, homework and studying.
However, being a part of the Class of 2016, I understand why the College implemented this policy. My class went a bit overboard with the alcohol, and it was an issue both semesters. The amount of documentations and transports in a single weekend spring semester prompted the IFC (Inter-Fraternity Council) and DPS to prevent First-Years from being allowed in fraternities the following weekend.
Did it work? Not necessarily. While it decreased the number of transports, it did not decrease the drinking. If anything, it forced First-Years to drink in their dorms, which is a whole other can of worms.
Pre-gaming. A majority of people who go out and party on a regular basis will pre-game at some point.
Let’s be real here: unless you’re an extreme lightweight, you cannot get drunk on Natty Light and Jungle Juice alone. It just will not happen. If people want to get drunk, they will pre-game.
But when people are caught drinking underage by DPS or otherwise, they will not say that they pre-gamed before going out; they’ll just say that they got the alcohol from whatever fraternity they were at. This gets the fraternities in a boatload of trouble, and they have enough to worry about besides getting probation from someone ratting them out for giving alcohol to students that are underage.
I personally believe that the IFC supports this policy because it shows the college that it’s not the fault of the fraternities that select people pre-game too much and get too drunk later in the night.
When they let people into their house, they can’t tell that you have pre-gamed right before walking out the door of your room. The alcohol has not hit your system yet. So you cannot exactly pin responsibility to the fraternity for someone getting blackout drunk at their house, when they took 4 or 5 shots right before the said person left his or her dorm.
All in all, I think that this policy is a good idea. The first few weeks of classes are challenging enough as a First-Year without the pressure to go out and get wasted all weekend. By keeping them out of the fraternities, First-Years have the opportunity to explore all the other awesome options that Gettysburg College has to offer. For the rest of us, we can hold out until Sept. 6.
