Friday, December 18, 2009

Here's An Idea

This week The Penn State Propaganda Portal once more addresses alcohol abuse at Penn State. We learn: Graham is dedicated to to eradicating dangerous drinking;  he has made it top priority from day one; despite Graham's efforts at Penn State the problem persists and has gotten worse nationwide [non sequitur  in the original];Damon Sims tells us that Penn  State has "seen less progress than we would like[ i.e. none] in the ongoing effort [long list of ineffective programs given] to curb high-risk drinking among our students..."; and finally that " [t]he possession of alcohol and alcohol sales are not permitted at Penn State student-athletic events, and alcohol advertising is prohibited in those facilities."

When I read the last bit my first reaction was what a bunch of bullshit, what about football tailgates? Then I realized that this is a factually correct, but a deeply, and my guess is intentionally , misleading, statement. Even though Beaver Stadium is full of drunks on football Saturdays, people can't buy or consume alcoholic beverages in the  stadium. The question arises if Old Main thinks it's a good idea to ban alcohol at student-athletic events why do they tolerate it at the tailgates that precede and follow football games? Yeah, I know the answer. It's a rhetorical question.

Since everything else they've tried has failed to curtail dangerous drinking, I think it's time to ban alcohol at tailgates and see what happens.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you want to see a place that has done things right, you should check our Nebraska's NU directions:

http://www.nudirections.org/

According to their data, they had high risk drinking rates that were 17 percentage points higher than PSU in 1997. Since then, their rate has dropped by almost 20 points, while PSU's has risen by almost 10 points.

The truth is that both PSU and State College have done a lot. And you really cannot leave the Borough out of this, Veblen.

In my opinion, however, it's not been very well coordinated and consistent. We try something for a year or two, then lose interest. In the last 5-8 years, we've truly lagged behind those communities that have made progress--many of those communities have had nuisance ordinances, for example, for 5 or more years. PSU was several years behind others in using AlcoholEdu.

Tale a look at what NU gives to parents of new students:
http://stuafs.unl.edu/parentpower.shtml

Now, take a look at Penn State's Guide to Greek Life for Parents:
http://stuafs.unl.edu/parentpower.shtml
of look at Penn State's new parents page:
http://www.parentprogram.psu.edu/default.shtml

If you can find the words "drinking" or "alcohol" anywhere in those two, you're a better searcher than I am.

That's the difference between a community and university that have seriously and honestly faced a problem and worked together to solve it, and Penn State and State College.