COLUMN: Search for a boozing scapegoat

From Daniel Fienberg, "The Flen Print," Fall '97 From Daniel Fienberg, "The Flen Print," Fall '97 A three-week e-mail correspondence with a friend at M.I.T. ended with a terse, but understandable summation. "I don't like the way society works where no one is responsible for what they do," he wrote me, effectively shutting off discussion of the recent death of an MIT freshman, a pledge at Fiji. Clearly, we were not even agreeing to disagree. We just weren't relating at all. Several weeks of restrictions, penalties and school regulations had left him angry with a system in which he felt he was rapidly becoming a victim. Today, with college students heading to emergency rooms or worse as the result of excessive drinking, we have abandoned the notion of fate. Fate did not make the students drink. We abandon the notion of God, for we know that divine forces have never made anyone drink 10 jello shots. And so, desperately searching for a scapegoat, we point our fingers at the victims saying that they could have done better. And of course, they could. On one level, we have to acknowledge that somewhere deep within all of us there is a little voice that chimes in and says, "Um? We're already pretty darn hammered. Enough." At this point, it really ought to be time to stop. Personal responsibility ought to kick in. But you know what? I'm not that good. And neither are you. Or if you are, bless you, but the person next to you may be slightly less attentive to that inner-conscious. It takes an individual to start drinking, but a beer at a party probably will not get you drunk or send you to the hospital. One beer also won't lead to the sexually compromising situations that can scar you for life. But most of Penn's alcoholics are not practicing in the dark corners of their high-rise rooms. They are drinking in circumstances where the rules are much different. The Greek system is not at fault for all campus drinking problems. As an entity, they don't force freshmen to do multiple tequila shots or to drink a dozen beers. However, with music, writhing bodies and dim lighting, they create an atmosphere and with alcohol they create a culture. No, the Greeks do not cause campus drinking, but they set up an environment where it becomes encouraged. Once the ambiance draws the unprepared student in, what do the organizers do to stop it? A friend within the system tells me most fraternities have a policy involving sober monitors -- people who don't drink so they can watch the people who do. If you're tipsy and you slug the person next to you, these monitors will probably throw you out. Good. But what of the quiet drunk? The drunk who is silly-smashed, but not violent. In three years here, I have never seen a partier removed simply for being drunk. I have seen one student get told to stop drinking, but that was after he ralphed in the middle of the dance floor. Had he kept his dinner down, his imbibing could have continued unabated. Do you remember that we still have a BYOB policy? It's easy to forget. After all, can Penn really enforce a rule like that? They can't be everywhere at all times. This semester, administrators have worked hard to foster a dialogue with the Greek community in an effort to curb drinking related calamities. But actual correction has to come from closer to the source. Though they do not embody the entire problem, it would be nave to leave the InterFraternity Council out of a plan for a solution. Rather than using its energy to take over the ineffectual Undergraduate Assembly, why doesn't the IFC do something active, public and positive. Accepting that Judy Rodin cannot stop binge drinking with a DP guest column, the IFC should take control with a tangible plan acknowledging that the individual cannot be solely responsible for over-drinking, but that drinking, the Greek system and partying are not evil. Need more incentive, IFC? I haven't gone to a frat party this semester that hasn't broken at least two state laws. If the Greeks want to resist active change for purely altruistic reasons, how about making things better to cover your rears? The stupid five-buck entertainment charge (for a sorry DJ and the Spice Girls CD?) and the freshmen huddled around an illicit keg don't look good. All fraternity members should know the University and state's alcohol policies. But more importantly, they should know how the IFC and Panhel are planning to interpret and enforce these rules. These two bodies must make their regulating presence felt at every party. Because unlike the Liquor Control Enforcement and police, Greek leaders aren't out to demonize their system. Surely with their urging, the individual houses will realize that internal, gradual correction is better than outside, hostile destruction. The Greeks must take a pro-active stance to accompany the University's educational approach. So send IFC/Panhel representative to parties. Make sure sober monitors are keeping order. Make sure bartenders are cutting people off. Make sure the intoxicated are getting home safely. Sure, some of these ideas are hypothetically already in place, but they're not visible. My friend at M.I.T. is wrong to see that school's tragedy from a victim's point of view. But a barrage of too-little-too-late rules have overwhelmed him. At Penn, we need to understand we aren't so strong as to deserve full responsibility for our actions. We are still children. And it is time for our whole village to take responsibility.