Partying Students and Community Relations

timely
Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Good point about the community members likely having more than 4 guests. And how would you know someone had alcohol in their house unless you went in? I wouldn’t think they could get a warrant to enter your house to see if people are drinking in there! What if the students started calling it in every time a community member was having a baby shower at their home?

In my original message, I emphasized the concerns of the community members, but my actual concern is more the students. As it is, the students walk to these parties from campus or from their own houses. If they push them out of town, they are going to be drinking and driving. When one of the students brought up at the city council meeting that this would undoubtedly increase the number of drunk drivers in town, S said that the community members at the meeting all started yelling derisively. Stuff like, “Oh give me a break!” and “That’s ridiculous!”. He said it was funny because the students who spoke were all calm and dignified, but the community members were yelling and acting like children.

Yes, the ideal solution would be for the students to quit having parties with alcohol, but we all know that won’t happen. I don’t see what the U can possibly do about it. Tell them not to serve alcohol? They have no right to do that. And it seems to me that allowing underage drinking on campus is a mega-lawsuit waiting to happen.