Waging war on the war

Last week, the Columbia College Student Council sent a letter to Dean Cristen Scully Kromm, director of Residential Programs, regarding the University’s alcohol policy. In the letter, CCSC suggested that the University adopt more reasonable policies for alcohol use in common spaces. The University administration and Residential Life should work with CCSC to create an alcohol policy that truly discourages, rather than fosters, unhealthy drinking habits.

Columbia students who are over 21 are only permitted to consume alcohol in residence halls if they are in their rooms or at registered events. This means that a group of students who are all legally allowed to consume alcohol may not throw a dinner party with wine or watch a football game with beer in hand in the common room of their Hogan suite. CCSC’s letter asked for new policies on alcohol use, specifically in common spaces. The proposal calls to allow alcohol consumption by students over 21 in common rooms that require a key for entry, such as Hogan and East Campus suites.

Dean Scully Kromm and Residential Life should take CCSC’s suggestions seriously and create a more reasonable policy. The current policy banning alcohol consumption in common rooms encourages unhealthy drinking behaviors. Current University rules allow—and, indeed, encourage—students to drink alone in their bedrooms rather than in the social environment of their shared spaces. Confined to their rooms, students may be more likely to engage in heavy, sometimes solitary, “pre-gaming” before they attend parties where they may not be served alcohol. The current University policy may also prompt students to move their socializing off-campus, which both damages Columbia’s sense of community and causes students to end up intoxicated at dangerous distances from home.

While it is appealing to attempt to quell underage drinking completely, the University should realize that such harsh endeavors may be cultivating exactly the opposite behavior in both underage and legal drinkers. Instead, the University should encourage students to socialize in a reasonable and responsible way.