Spring Fling later this month will mark a mix between new and old. Like last year, the event will be dry. Unlike last year, and many years prior, the April 30 program will this year have only two headlining acts — The Roots and RJD2 — rather than its usual three.
The decision to prohibit alcohol from last year's event appeared to be a successful one, as the large number of hospitalizations and instances of unruly behavior that marked the 2009 Spring Fling seemed to be avoided. Yet considering that last year's event was relatively tame and students proved themselves for the most part able to abide by the rules, it leads one to question whether it's really necessary to downsize the event and, more importantly, whether the change will be effective at all.
The university's decision to shrink the outside performers from three to two was based on the assumption that shortening the event would reduce the amount of alcohol students consume. Administrators and students who made up the Alcohol Task Force last year seemed to follow the logic that students wouldn't feel the need to drink as much if the effect of the alcohol only had to last through two acts, instead of three.
As students, we at the Daily consider this logic to be flawed. Cutting down the length of the event does not mean that students are going to drink less. In fact, the drinking problems that arise during Spring Fling or any of the other large student events during the year, including Fall Ball, Winter Bash and the now-defunct Naked Quad Run, come from the excessive pregaming before the event. This is even more likely now that the spring event is dry, and having one less act will do little to change this.
The administration's decision to mandate the event as dry was reasonable — students showed themselves incapable of controlling themselves when 21-and-over individuals were allowed to bring alcohol onto the concert grounds. Yet now, the administration's real concern should be the drinking that occurs under the radar. Students are at a much greater risk of hurting themselves when they're heavily drinking in a private place with only a few friends to keep an eye on them. It's understandable for the administration to want to curtail drinking as much as possible, but cutting out an hour or so of entertainment is not the way to go about doing it.
Spring Fling marks the beginning of the end of the year at Tufts. For students, it's a time to relax and have fun before finals. Cutting out an act ultimately takes away from the purpose of this event without doing much to help in the way of protecting students. Spring Fling is a long-standing tradition, and truncating it after it's already been altered for other safety concerns is an off-the-mark response to a long-standing problem.
