COLUMN: All necessary measures

From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '99 From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '99There was a time not so long ago when I felt as if students, faculty and administrators were unified in the fight to stop underage drinking and alcohol abuse. Sure, it's easy to drag the story of Michael Tobin's tragic death through a thousand speeches declaring war on alcohol abuse. And it's easy to organize a committee of campus leaders to come up with a battle plan designed to curb both underage drinking and alcohol abuse through a combination of regulations, education and enforcement. But when it comes to rolling up one's sleeves and doing what needs to be done in order to execute the plan, I'm not sure if the University has come to grips with what it's going to take. To be sure, the educational component has gone pretty much as planned. Freshmen have by this point received enough alcohol education, awareness speeches and workshops to drive a man well, to drink. For example, midway through the summer, all incoming freshmen received the Alcohol 101 CD-ROM, designed to educate America's college-age youth about the dangers of alcohol abuse. The hiring of Stephanie Ives as the University's new alcohol coordinator is yet another step in the right direction. Ives has an excellent track record of stemming the tide of underage drinking and alcohol abuse at the University of Arizona and it is hoped she can achieve similar results here at Penn. In other words, the University has done a lot of quality work over the summer to get the new alcohol program moving. But none of what the University has done matters as long as the first thing incoming freshmen see as they cross Spruce Street coming out of the Quad is a keg party for grad students outside of Vance Hall. Worse still, few people were carded at the event and more than a few underage drinkers were seen. And for any freshmen who missed the party, there was a more than enough evidence -- in the form of a pile of kegs -- to make all those alcohol education sessions seem a little less credible. It's a shame that the University has continued to allow graduate programs to flaunt the "change in campus culture" President Judith Rodin claims she is trying to enact. The new alcohol policy states, "consumption of alcoholic beverages in outdoor public areas such as walkways, building steps, and porches, unenclosed patios, green spaces, and the like is not permitted regardless of the age of the drinker." Provost Robert Barchi has pledged to investigate the Wharton soiree, but unlike other graduate student groups, the Wharton Graduate Association has said it has no plans to honor the restrictions of Penn's new alcohol policy. That's unfortunate, because undergraduate members of the Working Group on Alcohol Abuse told the committee last spring that if you're trying to change campus attitudes, it doesn't make much sense to limit change to undergraduates. Student members on the committee complained bitterly about having to walk by grad school keggers on the way to meetings whose purpose was to change campus attitudes toward alcohol. In essence, it was clear to see that programs like social marketing and education couldn't work in an environment that sent mixed signals in the form of keg parties on one hand and "Don't Drink" slogans on the other. The irony of making freshmen walk by identical parties should be lost on no one. Ms. Ives' job -- already a difficult one -- will be all the more tough if she has to fit all underage drinkers on campus with blinders as they pass by the graduate parties on weekends. If President Rodin really wants to effect change, the graduate programs should lead the way, not trail behind. If they don't, then all the changes in the alcohol policy become what undergraduate leaders feared they were in the first place -- yet another series of restrictions placed on fraternity parties and little else. President Rodin wrote in the Gazette, addressing the alumni, "[t]he students in the Working Group on Alcohol Abuse have given the Penn community a challenge. We must all rise to the occasion." That is certainly true, and in the next few months, we'll see just how committed Rodin, Barchi and the rest of the University are to real change within campus culture. If everything goes right, it should be a lot harder for an underage student to get a drink on campus. Also, if the long-term education and social marketing programs have their desired effect, Penn should see a marked decrease in alcohol abuse over the next 10 years or so. All of the programs, however, can only go as far as the University lets them.