Cracking down on fun
By: Will Pappas
Issue date: 9/11/09 Section: Opinions
As a new school year gets into full swing and we are embraced by the loving hugs of friends and the choke-hold of academia, it is a time to reflect on what has and has not changed about Furman, for good and bad.
The perpetual bone for students to pick is always the alcohol policy, which this year has gained several new dimensions. First, although not Furman policy per se, Greenville has put together a special unit of police officers called the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to prevent underage drinking. It is all well and good to crack down on drunk driving and the situations that propagate it, but when a gaggle of cops descend on a common house party to hand out citations to anyone born after 1989, or try to get into a party as a undercover agents in outfits they picked up from Hot Topic, it begs the question: are there not more severe crimes being committed that would demand these officers' attention?
The same question could be asked of Furman: are there not more pressing issues that affect students then whether or not they get drunk on campus? Stephanie Boyd, Sigma Chi Chicken Finger Chick of the Week and "Health Educator," has been given a grant to study alcohol on our campus. Are there not issues at Furman that grant money should go toward, other than for more alcohol prevention? For instance, possibly getting the internet to work.
College is more than just the classes you take; it is the experience you have. For some people, that involves experimenting with alcohol. Is that wrong? Well, I'm not sure that, in this case, what is right or wrong matters as much as the way things are. If Furman concerned itself more with the way things are in the world rather than how they should be, there would be a lot less of a disconnect between the students and the administration, especially regarding what students do in their spare time.
In Greenville and at Furman, I'm sure it can feel like there is no outlet for a student under 21 to have the kind of fun that is not prefaced by "good," "clean," or "Christian." If this attitude prevails and our institutions continue to view the world the way they did before the Baptist convention released us, then they might as well change the sign out front to read, "Abandon hope for fun, ye who enter here."
The perpetual bone for students to pick is always the alcohol policy, which this year has gained several new dimensions. First, although not Furman policy per se, Greenville has put together a special unit of police officers called the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to prevent underage drinking. It is all well and good to crack down on drunk driving and the situations that propagate it, but when a gaggle of cops descend on a common house party to hand out citations to anyone born after 1989, or try to get into a party as a undercover agents in outfits they picked up from Hot Topic, it begs the question: are there not more severe crimes being committed that would demand these officers' attention?
The same question could be asked of Furman: are there not more pressing issues that affect students then whether or not they get drunk on campus? Stephanie Boyd, Sigma Chi Chicken Finger Chick of the Week and "Health Educator," has been given a grant to study alcohol on our campus. Are there not issues at Furman that grant money should go toward, other than for more alcohol prevention? For instance, possibly getting the internet to work.
College is more than just the classes you take; it is the experience you have. For some people, that involves experimenting with alcohol. Is that wrong? Well, I'm not sure that, in this case, what is right or wrong matters as much as the way things are. If Furman concerned itself more with the way things are in the world rather than how they should be, there would be a lot less of a disconnect between the students and the administration, especially regarding what students do in their spare time.
In Greenville and at Furman, I'm sure it can feel like there is no outlet for a student under 21 to have the kind of fun that is not prefaced by "good," "clean," or "Christian." If this attitude prevails and our institutions continue to view the world the way they did before the Baptist convention released us, then they might as well change the sign out front to read, "Abandon hope for fun, ye who enter here."