<p>Just thought I’d put in my two cents as a current Whitman freshman: I think alcohol is a serious problem here at Whitman. It seems that anybody can get it, and the majority of night life on the weekends is centered around it. Sure there are activities such as live music Friday nights from 9-11, but after that, people are off to party. There are occasional school-sponsored dances and other events that are of course “dry”, but the drunk kids always end up dancing there too. For a large number of Whitman students, possibly the majority, to party means to drink.</p>
<p>As a non-drinker, this really bothers me. I feel like there is nothing to do on weekend nights because it’s either get drunk/party (they’re interchangeable) or be bored and, in worst-case scenarios, resort to homework. You can only watch so many movies or play so many board games before they grow old. I find myself dying to get off campus on the weekends, and have found myself so bored that I find a trip to Walmart exhilarating, even if I don’t buy anything. I wish we could learn to party without alcohol here.</p>
<p>Most disgusting is seeing some of the kids on (huge) diversity scholarships puking their brains out while some of us non-diverse (synonymous with Cacausian) students (many without scholarships) work very hard and have trouble finding entertainment. The whole diversity topic is a whole other issue at Whitman for another post, but seeing “diverse” students act irresponsibly and yet get pampered by the college disgusts me.</p>
<p>I have encountered peer pressure to drink and to smoke marijuana and am pretty much fed up with it here. In fact I’m considering transferring to one of Whitman’s top competitor schools so that in addition to the upgrade in academics, I can also be home during the weekends if I get bored at school</p>
<p>Finally, for some concrete evidence of Whitman’s alcohol problem, Jewett Hall has essentially been put under a complete alcohol and party ban and is now considered “dry”. The other freshman hall on campus has been warned to shape up or it too will become “dry”.Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that consumption of alcohol for people under 21 years of age is illegal in Washington? Because nobody at Whitman seems to know it or care.</p>
<p>Hope this gives you an inside view that the college probably does not want anybody to see, but I figure I’d voice my disgust somewhere because it’s constantly poisoning my experience here. Whether or not Whitman students’ alcohol consumption and abuse is higher or lower compared to other schools, this is still a problem.</p>
<p>If I see another puddle of bathroom puke, I might lose it completely.</p>