The efforts of Tufts Community Union President Brandon Rattiner and the student members of the newly formed Alcohol Task Force to open dialogue with university administrators on the new alcohol policy have already been unnecessarily complicated by yet another instance of excessive alcohol consumption by underage students.
The International Club's annual I-Cruise, which was ready to set sail Saturday night at 11:30 p.m., never left the dock because an underage Tufts student was hospitalized, reportedly for alcohol poisoning. The International Club's efforts to create an environment that was both fun and safe were hampered by a combination of alcohol consumption before arrival and continuous intake once on board. While the Daily in no way supports the newly instituted alcohol policy, incidents like these make it more difficult for students like Rattiner to advocate in earnest for more student input in the university decision-making process.
I-Cruise, which sold all 600 available tickets at $25 each, was deemed unsafe to sail by its captain in accordance with the Entertainment Cruises company's safety policy. The captain felt that there were too many heavily intoxicated students on board to leave the dock, as that would render them inaccessible to emergency medical care. Police were dispatched to the incident, further amplifying the impact of students' choices to drink.
This is a shameful reflection upon the Tufts student body as a whole. Not only was the overall level of intoxication inconsiderate to responsible students who paid to have a fun evening out — away from the dock — but it also could reinforce the view of many Tufts administrators that students do not know how to handle themselves in social situations and must be reined in by drastic policies. Students cannot expect to be treated like responsible adults at the bargaining table for university policy if they consistently prove themselves to be irresponsible.
The Daily hopes that Rattiner and those on the Alcohol Task Force will seek to demonstrate that the new, stricter alcohol policy — which states that underage students who are found to be under the influence of or in possession of alcohol go directly to university probation level one, or pro-one — is unwise and self-defeating. Under this policy, not only does an underage student who chooses to unlawfully binge drink put her life and safety in danger, she also places her friends and fellow students in the difficult position of choosing between contacting health officials and thereby landing their friend on pro-one, or potentially leaving her to suffer the effects of alcohol poisoning.
In truth, Tufts freshmen are thrown into a campus culture that too often revolves around alcohol consumption, and they are bombarded with entertainment media that propagate the idea that college life ought to be about chugging beers and cheap vodka. It is this system that needs attacking, and the way to get at this is to confront matriculating students' preconceptions through dialogue before they are faced with situations in which pressure and mob mentality can be blinding and lead them to throw what knowledge they have of responsible drinking habits (three sheets) to the wind.
That said, when students act so rashly as to impede the functioning of a campus tradition — and when they do so to such an extent that they endanger their own lives — it can reinforce the administration's point of view that we need iron-fisted enforcement and, more importantly, can compromise the credibility of student representatives who purport to argue on behalf of the entire student body.
The Daily urges students to be mindful of how their actions impact not only those involved, but also the community as a whole. Nothing comes for free, and the trust and respect of the university administration is no exception.
