Alcohol impairs judgment. In other words, drinking makes you do stupid things. These “things” can range in severity from merely obnoxious to putting yourself and others in serious danger. All things considered, it appears the Disciplinary Review Committee may have been drinking heavily when it recommended that the University place a campus-wide ban on kegs.
The most important issue at stake in the potential keg banning is student safety. The prohibitive cost of buying beer in cans will likely lead to more and more hard liquor at on-campus parties. In fact, schools like Notre Dame have actually banned hard liquor while allowing beer on campus, citing concern for students’ health. While beer is generally consumed relatively slowly over a longer period of time, the presence of hard liquor is more likely to encourage unsafe drinking habits among students searching for a more cost-effective buzz. It simply takes less liquid to kill more brain cells, and mixed drinks can make it difficult for someone to keep track of how much they’ve had.
An on-campus keg ban would likely move the party scene further off-campus and into the surrounding neighborhoods. Anyone who picked up a newspaper at all this summer knows that these neighborhoods are not spared from the violent crime that comes with a big city, especially one with such a checkered history as Washington. By pushing more party-goers into the surrounding neighborhoods on weekend nights, the University would slash its ability to ensure its students’ safety, especially since many will make the return trip to campus under the influence.
Forcing more parties and larger numbers of students into West Georgetown and Burleith on the weekend would also worsen the University’s already strained town-gown relations. While it would be ridiculous for Georgetown to cave to any and all pressure from surrounding residents, this needless stress on the relationship can be easily avoided, and doing so would be mutually beneficial to the University and its neighbors.
The reality at Georgetown is that a sizeable portion of the campus community is over 21, and it is unfair to punish them for living on campus with a summary ban on kegs. Of course, many of the campus’s drinkers are under 21, but denying them kegs will not suddenly alter their behavior. In the past, Georgetown has proven surprisingly progressive in dealing with the reality that underage students will drink; the end of “in the presence” sanctions and the provision of free, anonymous GERMS service are two excellent examples. A new ban on kegs would be an inexplicable regression from these policies.
The administration should take a little time to think the consequences out—perhaps over a nice, cold beer—before enacting a ban on kegs.
