While warm-weather gatherings at Boston University might be restricted to the BU Beach, schools classically adorned with quads often make use of the space with any conceivable means to celebrate. And though administrators at the schools probably hope that their student populations roam any green space sober, it’s a reality that many will probably choose not to. Such is the case with Tufts University, where officials have made it clear that they are not taking any chances in the coming months of alcohol-related incidents at campus events.
Tufts Daily &-&- the university’s newspaper &-&- reported Friday that the school’s annual Spring Fling this year will start and end without any trace of alcohol permitted in-between, even for students who are legally permitted to drink. And while the administration is within its right to make the event dry, it is not addressing the main catalyst to what left bunches of students hospitalized last year &-&- pre-parties and drinking at home, as a the student president of Tufts Community Union noted in the story. And until the school recognizes the actual causes of alcohol abuse on campus, the problem will remain and possibly intensify.
While the scope and consequence of the celebration and its corresponding booze cutback seem narrow, they are telling of the ignorant initiatives universities seem to put forth when faced with a problem encompassing drunken students. If the main cause of hospital trips is the act of isolated drinking among members of small gatherings, then banning liquor and beer at a school-sanctioned event will do nothing to curb the danger of a similar result this year and might further incite students to drink more beforehand. Those under 21 will drink regardless of the forbidding; the movement will only serve to punish those who are actually of the legal age to buy and consume alcohol.
If Tufts is serious about limiting student drinking on its campus, then it needs to address the issue in a methodical and sensible way, and punishing students at a single, remote gathering will hardly do that. Students will drink the weekend before, and probably go to the hospital for it, and students will drink the weekend after, and probably go to the hospital for it. Electing to take away a privilege for students who are 21 and older and turning a blind eye after simply makes Tufts look wishy-washy and insincere. If alcohol abuse is an actual concern on campus, then enacting an alcohol ban at a school celebration is merely a delay until something rash happens later that night.
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