Our Drinking Culture and How We Might Fix It

A few quick thoughts on the changing culture with respect to drinking.

GIs built Claremont McKenna College. These young men didn't have to be told about freedom or responsibility: they bled for it on the sands of Normandy and Okinawa.

Many of them just wanted to live their lives and go on their merry way to graduation and the workforce. They got rowdy and drank, just as all men home from war do, but seldom did it get out of hand.

It is with this history in mind that I turn to the drinking culture on campus. And seldom have I seen such a lack of self-preservation on the part of some of my fellow students.

This is surprising because up til now the college has treated us as if we were adults. Witness the more libertine policies that the college promotes -- multiple days for free sexual disease testings, free condoms, and a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on alcohol. And a student -- here on a Gates scholarship -- after he blew a .40 -- has the most minor of punishments. Reportedly, he must attend some alcohol counseling and write something to the effect of not drinking to excess again. Never you mind that a .40 can -- and often does-- become fatal. We're told by the R.A.s -- seldom available when needed -- that this might mean that the college's culture will inexorably change -- all because one student decided to misbehave. In fairness to the RAs, many students have misbehaved, but why should the handful ne'er do wells make the policy that governs the rest of us?

If you are treated as an adult, it is time to act like one. The punishments for breaking CMC's alcohol policy need to be stiffer for those who break them and wind up in a hospital bed, not for those of us who can handle our liquor and have a sense of shame. Here are a few recommendations:

• RAs should have their pay docked if their dorms have high rates of emergency room visits, especially if they do not make it abundantly clear on their whiteboard who is on duty and for how long.
• It should be an automatic semester off once a student is sent to the emergency room.
• Students from the other colleges that do damage at our school or go to the emergency

Have any other recommendations? I'd love to hear them.