<p>This is totally relevant. Take a look at this website. It lists all confirmed alcohol related deaths at colleges since 2004. You’ll find that far more alcohol related deaths are not related to greek life than are. If the fraternity party deaths are preventable, these are too.</p>
<p><a href=“http://compelledtoact.com/Tragic_listing/Main_listing_victims.htm”>http://compelledtoact.com/Tragic_listing/Main_listing_victims.htm</a></p>
<p>How do you know these deaths were not related to Greek life? And anyhow, on most campuses Greek membership is only a fraction of the overall student population. So it would stand to reason that there are many non-Greek alcohol-related incidents.</p>
<p>You have to look at these numbers in terms of proportion or ratio.
However, one of the factors associated with high alcohol consumption, in a study on that topic, includes how important Greek life is on campus (there are two main others: isolation and diversity - more isolated, less diverse, and more Greek colleges have the highest likelihood of binge drinking and other alcohol problems.)</p>
<p>I’m coming into this thread so late I can’t respond to all the comments that have been made, so I’ll just say that I’m pretty sure I agree with every post @poetgrl has made. Consider this a kind of global “like” of all of her posts.</p>
<p>I’m appalled at the revelations that are coming out; I can’t believe this hasn’t been widely known before; I’m feeling deeply depressed. Between this and the equally horrible stories I’ve been reading this week about police departments essentially extorting money from random people, the shootings and the beatings, etc., I’m starting to feel like we live in a really sick society.</p>
<p>Anyway, with regard to this particular problem and how to go about starting to fix it: I think someone earlier in this thread pointed out that it’s crazy that there are these school-sanctioned organizations that unabashedly, with no attempt at secrecy, serve alcohol to under-21s every weekend, and nobody seems to care. Totally aside from the terrible consequences that occasionally happen, why the hell are colleges turning a blind eye to all this illegal activity happening right on their campuses? Suppose any party loud enough to be heard from the street, whether at a frat or anywhere else, was likely to be visited by a campus security officer, and everyone knew that any evidence of drinking or drug use would be taken into evidence and potentially result in either academic disciplinary measures or outright criminal prosecution?</p>
<p>"unabashedly, with no attempt at secrecy, serve alcohol to under-21s every weekend, and nobody seems to care. "</p>
<p>That was the story at my alma mater 30 years ago. But today? There’s a LOT of policing / patrolling, and probation for serving alcohol. </p>
<p>My son is an RA. He had to “bust” a dorm party and write up kids who were underage who were drinking. There’s a whole protocol he has to follow - he cannot touch the alcohol, just observe them pouring it down the drain, etc. (He is 22, so of age,). In our day? Sheesh, no RA would have cared unless people were loud. The liability situation is very different today, IMO. </p>
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<p>What do you mean by “diversity”? Historically black schools and women’s schools generally tend to have lower college drinking, but also tend to have less diversity.</p>
<p>okay, then, by “diversity” I meant non white, non men - not “majority”/“minority” in a numerical sense, but in a dominating/dominated sense, so, the more equalitarian/empowering for female, LGBTQ, URM students the campus is, the lower the drinking, but that’s a very awkward wording.
In another wording: the more traditionally-dominating groups dominate on a campus, the more there is alcohol consumption.
This would seem to hold true at UVA, too.</p>
<p>I would be cautious of making sweeping generalizations about all non-straight-white-male demographic groups here.</p>
<p>By race and ethnicity, while all non-white groups have a lower overall drinking rate, the binge+heavy drinking rate is only lower than for white people for black, Asian, and multiracial people, according to <a href=“http://archive.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10nsduh/2k10results.htm#3.1.4”>http://archive.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10nsduh/2k10results.htm#3.1.4</a> .</p>
<p>It is not really a safe assumption that LGB people drink less than straight people:
<a href=“Health Professionals & Communities | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)”>Health Professionals & Communities | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA);
<a href=“Op-ed: The Fine Line Between Gay Pride and Alcoholism”>http://www.advocate.com/commentary/tyler-curry/2014/07/11/op-ed-fine-line-between-gay-pride-and-alcoholism</a></p>
<p>well, considering that women aren’t male, lesbians are women, and Black, Asian, and multiracial students aren’t white, that’s not really “sweeping” to consider these groups on the dominated/dominating continuum, especially considering that the issue at hand, heavy drinking (and everything that follows), takes place in often heavily segregated (both ethnically and economically, and at times also religiously) groups, which, one must thus assume, are segregated along lines of color, wealth, power, traditions, and privilege. I don’t know if there’s a study that’s been done about drinking in more economically diverse/more ethnically diverse/more religiously diverse fraternities vs. less diverse fraternities, or in more powerful fraternities vs. less powerful fraternities, but the push by some universities to make fraternities co-ed does imply that gender diversity, at least, is supposed to decrease risky behaviors.</p>
<p>But all of this pushes us away from the original topic, which is, fraternities running amok.</p>
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<p>Okay, I’m confused. That’s not what is being reported in articles like the one in Rolling Stone. Or are you just talking about your alma mater?</p>
<p>Surely it must be obvious to any campus security officer who bothers to stroll down the street where the frats are located, which frats are having parties on Saturday night. And it would also be obvious if that security officer bothered to walk up to the door and go inside, whether there was drinking going on. Maybe if the school cracked down on the drinking it would just go underground – but I bet there wouldn’t be so much of it. </p>
<p>I’m just talking about my alma mater. Not UVA. There’s way more crackdown in drinking in dorms (see story about my son having to bust underage dorm drinkers; H was an RA there 30 years ago and they turned a blind eyes to drinking in dorms unless the crowd got disruptive). And the frats are far more scrutinized for alcohol than in our day, where we all just went and drank. Liability concerns are waaaay higher today. </p>
<p>This school was sued a few years ago for the death of a kid who drank in a dorm room (had nothing to do with the Greek system). In our day? I know of a death from frat drinking where the guy did push-ups on a major road, got hit and died. No one did anything back then. It was just a shrug and a “those things happen.” No one would have thought of suing. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I’m confused on what your position on the matter is. I can only conclude you are annoyed by today’s litigation of schools where students are dying from alcohol related incidents. Doesn’t exactly make me yearn for the good old days you refer to 30 years ago.</p>
<p>I’m not “yearning for the good old days” of 30 years ago. I’m just commenting that I think how colleges deal with this is MORE intense today versus the “good old days” where they turned a blind eye. I was impressed by what my S had to do as an RA and the strict procedures he had to follow - when he and a fellow RA busted this dorm party, he had very strict procedures as to who should be contacted, he couldn’t even touch the alcohol but had to accompany them to the bathroom where he could certify that they poured it down the drain, etc. In short, these kids “got in trouble” in a way we sure didn’t 30 years ago. My H was an RA 30 years ago; he was never expected to bust any kids for alcohol, just to ensure that the dorm was reasonably quiet. I think more enforcement of alcohol policies is a good thing, not a bad thing, and I’m not quite sure why you think I’m “annoyed” that it’s the case. I’m pretty much a non-drinker myself and drank maybe 5 times tops in college, and I am no supporter of the drunken-rampage-party type of thing.</p>
<p>i don’t yearn for the good old days either, but pre-gaming which is the root of all evil came into fashion in the nineties. Back in the good old days we didn’t need to slug down a bunch of vodka before we even went where we were going. And pre-gaming occurs everywhere not just in sororities and frats. Cut out the hard liquor and we’re off to a good start .</p>
<p>We pre-gamed in college 30 years ago. We had another name for it that isn’t especially PC and that I won’t repeat here. And it was done by both Greeks and non-Greeks at my school. There was a liquor store that would deliver to campus addresses, generally no questions asked.</p>
<p>Ha - I don’t know that name, Sally! PM me! Do you remember the incident I’m referring to - on Sheridan Road?</p>
<p>I have no idea what sally305 is referring to.</p>
<p>No pre-gaming in my college experience. </p>
<p>Yes, PG. I thought he was on a scooter, though. A junior or senior with curly blond hair, right?</p>