Alcohol
abuse has become
a major issue on campuses across the country. A number of recent alcohol-related
incidents have excelled the need for change. At the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, four fraternities will soon no longer allow alcohol in their
houses. The policy has been handed down by the fraternities' national organizations.
Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Nu, Delta Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Sigma
and Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) will "go dry" by the year 2000. SAE has already
begun its alcohol-free policy by making it a violation of their national guidelines
and UNC-Chapel Hill guidelines to have alcohol in their house or on their
property. Currently all 11 Panhellenic sororities at UNC-Chapel Hill are alcohol-free.
In 1996, UNC-Chapel
Hill began enforcing a policy that made it a violation to drink alcohol in
Big Fraternity Court, a University-owned area surrounded by five fraternities.
Students in violation of the alcohol policy are referred to the Dean of Student's
office.
In 1997 the greek
community, Ron Binder, director of greek affairs at UNC-Chapel Hill and the
University began enforcing "dry recruitment", meaning all fraternity and sorority
functions during the recruitment period, when new members are selected, would
be alcohol free.
Drinking
is often viewed as a degenerative habit, one that leads the person into
a downward spiral that ends somewhere between early death and self-loathing
misery. However, there are those that feel that responsible drinking causes
no ill effects
and in fact can be an enjoyable part of life, especially a student's life.
That is what a
female University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sophomore student believes,
although she wished to remain anonymous.
"If you can
be responsible there isn't anything wrong with it," she said. "Part
of going to college is drinking. If you don't learn it there, you will learn
it somewhere."
As a freshman,
she usually went to frat parties, but now she prefers to go to bars with groups
of friends, she said. Although Franklin Street is crowded with popular spots,
an underage sophomore should be prohibited from being in them. But there she
is, out drinking with the rest of the campus. How does this happen? She's
beaten the system by getting a fake ID.
"They don't
look anything like me," she said, referring to the many fake ID's she
has had since high school. "(Bouncers) laugh at it and then just let
me in."
They may laugh,
but they aren't stopping her from entering.
"I've never
had any trouble with it in Chapel Hill," she said.
She achnowledges
that she knows 10 to 15 people that have false identification they use to
enter bars and that it is fairly easy to obtain one. In facts, she admits
that getting into bars when she is under 21 is part of the fun. The rest of
the fun comes from the socializing that goes on.
"It's easy
to get guys to buy drinks for you," she said, and adds that, "I
talk to more people that I wouldn't usually talk to. I'm usually shy and intimidated-but
not when I have been drinking."
Indeed, part of
alcohol's lure is the lowering of inhibitions. For her, this is the reason
alcohol must be used responsibly and among friends, but she feels there is
little danger.
"I know nothing
is going to happen to me," she said. "I'm with people I trust. We
drink just for fun." And at Chapel Hill, she pointed out, "You don't
have to drive anywhere."
According
to Binder, every fraternity and sororities' nationals had voted for dry
recruitment in the late 1980s; UNC-Chapel Hill did enforce it until 1997.
All
alcohol violations during the dry recruitment period at UNC-Chapel Hill
are reported to Binder and then sent to the Greek Judicial Board where
they go to trial. The fraternity or sorority's nationals are also notified.
Binder believes that fraternities at UNC-Chapel Hill are trying to catch
up to the guidelines set by other universities in the past few years rather
than setting the pace.
UNC-Chapel
Hill's guidelines state: "We believe that the most productive approach for
combating the negative effects of alcohol abuse is through creative alcohol
abuse prevention programming, combined with effective early intervention against
problem behaviors related to alcohol abuse and a clear statement of University
policy related to the use and abuse of alcohol. This revision of the Student
Alcohol Policy was undertaken with these principles in mind."