This past spring break I had a lovely time sitting home doing nothing. My break got all the more interesting when my friends and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to visit another friend at Brown University.
This was my first time visiting Brown, and I didn’t know what to expect, except for a lot of people who thought they were smarter than me. But instead, the very first thing I noticed was the bottle of Bacardi sitting right at the doorway of my friend’s on-campus dorm room. I was blown away.
“I say Jon, you are quite the risk taker keeping that bottle of alcohol at a place in which it is visible from halfway down the hallway when the door is but an inch open,” I said to him.
He informed me that Brown has a very simple alcohol policy: there is none.
There are no law-enforcers there like our RAs who are out to get students in trouble. Their fraternities even register their parties with the University, and during these parties, Brown sends police officers every so often — not to bust the kids, but to make sure there are no problems. Brown administrators recognize that the underage drinking goes on, and they simply make sure that no one gets hurt. This works for them.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: I’m about to say why Binghamton would do well to adopt such a system. You may think that this would make the world a better place.
I’m not sure if Binghamton is ready for a non-existant alcohol policy. When I watched the Brownies enjoying their libations, I noticed that they didn’t seem to over-endulge as I imagined they would. With no one to get them in trouble for drinking right there in the dorm, why wouldn’t every night be Friday night? Why not be wasted 24/7?
At first I thought that maybe when there is no risk, the allure of drinking is not as great. This would explain why Brown students are able to control their passions for the drink. If Binghamton was less strict about the policy, maybe we’d see the same results.
I doubt it.
Look at the people you know. Look at yourself! If there was no risk in having a bottle of liquor sitting on on your desk right now, wouldn’t you have one? If there was no risk, wouldn’t you be reading this column in a drunken stupor?
The belief that underage drinking on campus should be allowed is an immature idea born of a teenager’s desire to get drunk without risk, justified by the ridiculous notion that such a policy would result in benefits for both the college and the students.
When drinking in Binghamton is so easy off campus, drinking in a dorm room is obsolete, and honestly, rather anti-social.
Students at Brown, from my brief observations, appear to be more studious and less social than Binghamton students. There isn’t too much of an off campus scene there, whereas all of the action at Binghamton happens off campus. Students at Brown will stay on campus, and may have a drink or two several times a week. Students at Binghamton go downtown and get uncontrollably drunk several times a week, and I feel that if you give students here the ability to do this right in their room, they’ll take advtantage of it.
Especially at a school like ours that is so adamantly against drinking, an immediate change to a system like Brown’s would put a bunch of students that are eager to drink risk-free in a place with no risks.
If Binghamton University began allowing drinking on campus, I don’t see much changing, except people being a lot drunker by the time they got to Sports Bar, and a lot drunker the following morning.
Lee Lefkowitz is a sophomore English and math major and is Op/Ed editor, and he is a better writer than any of the columnists on the Brown newspaper.