November 21, 2024

22 thoughts on “Don’t Haze Me, Bro!

  1. A thunderstorm’s rolled in…Zeus and the Frat gods are grumbling. Oh wait, that’s just God telling campus how pissed he is at the Greeks’ immense hubris. Nothing like a room of post-teenagers trying to prove that they’ve got more wisdom than venerated University administrators.

  2. Luke I know we’ve been over this before, but the biggest sticking point of this whole proposal in my mind is barring freshman from open frat parties. Where’s the wisdom to this part of the proposal?

  3. Since I don’t claim to have the wisdom of an old person, half of my gig is simply respect for the institution and its administrators who know a hell of a lot more about maintaining Cornell’s stature and reputation than we do. The other half is that I want my school to avoid blatantly violating federal and state laws, since that reflects poorly on my diploma and reason for being here. The other half is that I’m pre-med and I care deeply that uninitiated [myopic] freshmen don’t destroy their livers. There, 150% of good reasons.

  4. It seems silly for the aim to be “to change policy – not practices”. In other words, “Go! Drink! But we won’t take responsibility for it.” I hate frat parties, but I would rather kids get drunk at frats where there is at least some regulation than in some non-regulated place elsewhere, which they’ll be even more unsafe.

  5. So, Luke, freshman are less likely to destroy their livers at collegetown closed parties with hard liquor? As opposed to open, regulated and monitored open frat parties where you won’t find anything above 5% abv?

  6. Dennis that comment sounds as if you’re saying that by letting freshman drink underage and illegally at frat parties is better than letting them drink underage and illegally in collegetown. We all know that the chance of many freshman being invited to closed collegetown parties in their first semester is far from high and come spring semester one would hope that if they are invited, that they have learned their tolerance. Frats may state that by involving freshman in their parties allows them to consider possibly joining the frat, but parties and enticement with alcohol should not be the way to find prospective pledges. There are plenty of day time events that can be held during the year that can help a freshman consider if they wish to pledge a frat. The fact of the matter is that frats have continually thrown parties, participated in events and pledge processed while allowing underage drinking is occuring on their watch. That is illegal and these are the consequences.

  7. “We all know that the chance of many freshman being invited to closed collegetown parties in their first semester is far from high…”

    Completely disagree. Walk into Ctown during orientation week and you’ll find 6 annex parties and 2 dozen house parties that you can get into with no problem. If anything, it’s easier to get into these parties as a freshman as opposed to an upperclassman “rando.”

  8. Everyone is formuating arguments based on a sequence of hypotheticals – “they WILL/WON’T go to collegetown; they WILL be in more/less danger.” This doesn’t constitute a basis for reinterpreting the law. Cornell is not in judicial isolation; in fact it is partially a New York public school. College is a recognized underage environment, therefore since drinking laws exist, they ought to be enforced here more than anywhere – this is why the law was created. No hypothetical excuse is compelling enough to expressly PERMIT a thousand scofflaws (our nation’s most promising scofflaws at that) to get emergency-room drunk.

    Legal issues aside, this is a conservative blog, therefore some of us care about American institutions. IMHO, Cornell is critical to our future prosperity, so it should attempt to enforce the laws which enhance students’ academic growth and maturity.

    Any lawyers in the house?

  9. Luke, the law sucks, and you’re ignoring the realities of what goes on in college with your position. Yes, drinking under the age of 21 is against the law, but everyone in college drinks. So you can choose to either take the moral high-ground and ignore this fact, or you can have alcohol consumed in a way that is least damaging to the community of students.

  10. Of course everyone drinks. Reality does not nullify the law. This is a simple issue being contorted by students who feel dependent on alcohol and the Greek system. The fact is that drinking happens due to lack of enforcement, so we should start enforcing. It is not necessary to accept a certain baseline of medical emergencies because “they happen.” That is cruel.

    I don’t think the 6000 freshman parents desire a “least damaging” ‘solution.’ Nor will you when your child is here.

    Cornell cannot award 4.0 GPAs unless it is capable of earning one itself. Explicitly doing harm to the public health does not earn us an A. Implicitly doing it, what I potentially advocate, is bad too- but we have yet to TRY it! If it’s bad, scrap it.

    If you are an honest conservative, admit that you are pressing for a purposeful ignorance of established law. No law designates Cornell as a “safe” place to break the law, even though it is a haven.

  11. “If you are an honest conservative, admit that you are pressing for a purposeful ignorance of established law.”

    Well yeah, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

    You’re still ignoring the reality of the situation, Luke, by saying “The fact is that drinking happens due to lack of enforcement, so we should start enforcing.” Drinking happens because there is a demand for drinking, a demand that is as old as the existence of fermented beverages themselves. We can either deal with this reality or take the moral high ground and endanger students.

  12. Interesting point of views-however, drinking on campus, off campus or at frat/sorority houses hasn’t changed in 50 YEARS!!! Wheverever drinking is tolerated…there it shall be!!!

    MJB

  13. My final comment.
    supposition 1: 50 years of frat binging
    supp. 2: half of that was drinking age 18; half was 21.
    result: There is nothing strange about evaluating the status quo every 25 years; we are due. And so it happened, right on time. This comes down to you wanting to maintain it, and me wanting to update it. You call it moral; I call it American duty. Here, have a beer.

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