Kudos are in order to the Office of Student Life and Greek Life for attempting to educate incoming freshmen on the dangers of excessive partying, albeit terribly ineffectually. The “Party House 2001” event, which was held Sept. 20 in the Student Recreation Center, was a showcase of the sorts of potential situations that freshmen may encounter in pseudo-typical party situations.
One featured room included an intoxicated woman vomiting into the toilet while her friends held her hair back during a fraternity party. Another had a young man who became so intoxicated on his 21st birthday that he went to the hospital for treatment. Another room featured police doling out MIP fines to underage party-goers.
Although the point of the skits was obvious, the effectiveness of the event was more elusive. Most students in attendance claimed the best part about the “Party House” was finding out just how much those MIP fines were (so they could start saving up?). The situations on display weren’t anything unexpected or novel, and the project would have been more informative for freshmen if the actors had given ideas for avoiding MIPs altogether.
Incoming students are not as naive as we assume they are. Part of the lure of coming to universities is the freedom from authority figures so that students can party, be irresponsible and drink so much that their real friends stick around to pull their hair back. Teenagers have been taught from an early age that partying is part of the college experience. Some accept it while others reject it.
The fact is, the “Party House” probably had a fun, raging party in other parts of the house that viewers didn’t get to see. There were probably other people in the house who were also intoxicated, but knew their limit and were having fun. Shielding this other side of the issue is what ultimately makes this anti-drinking campaign, and others like it, futile.
Anti-drug and drinking programs are famously ineffective. Drugs and alcohol are unhealthy for your body, but there is a reason that people do these things: because it can be fun. Messages from anti-drug advocates fail because they don’t present both sides of real-life situations. Therefore, people don’t believe the messages and are inclined to discover the consequences on their own. When they do so, they will find they have learned more about consequences, irresponsible behavior and self-control from their own mistakes than they could from a skit.
Teaching students about the ill effects of drinking is a fine idea, but is ultimately impractical and a waste of the University’s money. If the Office of Student Life and the Greeks want to inform freshmen, they should continue with their ideas of offering information on campus resources for alcoholism, rape and drug abuse. Regardless of the effectiveness of campaigns against alcohol and drug abuse, students need to know that resources exist on campus to help them, and it is truly a service to disseminate that information.