<p>I visited rice as a prospective student- and man, there is a lot of drinking. At 5:30 in the afternoon, I saw some students swaggering around with beers playing golf with tennis balls- in the middle of the campus. I also hit it off with the Rice people, and partook in a small amount of boozing myself. The weekend I was up there there was a "body art" festival hosted in the school of architecture. There were a few professors there, yet they were serving beer. I asked for something that (in the dark) looked like coke, and got a beer. That's right- a prospective student was given alcohol at a semi-official school event. That night at 3:00 AM, for some inexplicable reason, some guy in my dorms was dancing on a cart. I went out there to see, and the Rice police came (and naturally, I was scared to death). They must have known that underage drinking was going on (it was obvious), yet they just said to keep it down a little and left. The next morning, as I was leaving, a friend I made the night before asked me if I wanted shots (at about 11 AM).</p>
<p>Wow. I'm not sure if I want to go to a school that drunken (the guy I roomed with seemed pretty studious and down to earth, too). Soon, they're having a fully school sponsored event called "beer bike-" look at some posters that are in plain view at Rice (taken from my friend's image site):</p>
<p>I will not deny that everything that you said is absolutely true, and that there is a lot of drinking at Rice, and the administration doesn't care too much. </p>
<p>That said, at Rice there is SO much else to do. As a non-drinker, i still have a lot of fun, and I know loads of people who that is also true for. It depends a lot on who your surround yourself with. You can have friends who are only light drinkers or non-drinkers should you choose, or your friends could be alcoholics if that's your thing. Like at any college, you must be mature enough to make your own decisions regarding alcohol here. </p>
<p>I actually was at the body art party and really liked it - there was so much to see and do besides drink. I am not surprised that you were offered alcohol. When I host prospective students I don't allow them to drink because I do not want to be held responsible for any problems that may occur, but many other hosts do not feel that way. I do hope that what you did find was that no one was forcing you to drink, and all of the offers were made so that you wouldn't feel left out - the students here really try to be inclusive, and not just in their alcohol consumption. </p>
<p>Beer bike involves chugging water for underage students - only over 21's chug beer. My daughter drinks a little - but again, feels no pressure to do so, and finds that there is a lot to do that does not involve drinking. I would be willing to bet that the drinking is not any heavier at Rice than at most schools - and at least the drinking took place in conjunction with an artistic event. At my undergrad school, drinking involved chugging beer as fast as possible in the parking area under the dorms.</p>
<p>While Rice is tolerant of drinking, to a certain extent, they do not entirely turn a blind eye. If a student is in need of a little help after a campus function, the RUPD do help them out. If the student is unruly, the RUPD will help then, may may likely also refer the student to the University Court. I, as a Rice parent, see the "wet campus" as a way of keeping student parties, and any drinking that occurs, on campus rather than out in the community. Easier to handle, and it makes sense to me. College students are going to drink- I'd prefer that a school be realistic about it and handle it appropriately. If a student is in trouble with their drinking, the school does seem to handle that well. The college masters are like houseparents,and are there to address a problem and help the students in their residential college. There are also resident associates in each college who function in a liason/support capacity. My s. also hosts "prospies" and is one who will be an occasional light drinker. As all have said above, there is no pressure to drink, but yes, it is available to those who want to. Welcome to college life.</p>
<p>I did not mean to imply that the university does not provide any services to those who are having problems with alcohol. Rice EMS is a great service, and it is true that we do have a U.Court to deal with crimes involving alcohol. Also, the masters, the Rice Wellness Center, and Rice Counseling Center are available to those in need, if they are willing to seek them out (which a lot of times i don't think they are). </p>
<p>What I was trying to express was that Rice is not the kind of university where the RA's will search your room for alcohol, where you will be carded at parties (usually), or where anyone will prevent you from drinking more than you should. Like the OP stated, RUPD is gennerally not going to arrest anyone for underage drinking unless they do something that will potentially cause harm to another student or to the officer. </p>
<p>The major problem that I see is that all of the services mentioned above only come into play after their is an alcohol related issue, not before. Rice offers few policies or services to prevent underage or binge drinking. This fact makes me believe that rice actually does not "handle it appropriately" as jym said. </p>
<p>The wet campus thing is fine with me. Actually, I didn't even realize that there was such a thing as a dry campus until i came to rice. In the northast, pretty much all colleges are wet. In a city where people are very dependent on their cars, having a wet campus makes sense and is a good way to prevent drinking and driving.</p>
<p>Although I love Rice, the university's stance on alcohol has truly been my biggest dissapointment. Many times, my friends and I (mostly non- or light drinkers) have discussed the sad fact that nothing here will change until a tragedy occurs. While we hope that this will never happen, the university's demonstrated nonchalance has not convinced us otherwise.</p>
<p>Rice does have an alcohol policy- go to <a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Eucourt/alcohol.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ucourt/alcohol.html</a>
It is difficult to enforce preventative policies. In the colleges and universities around here, they tightened up the carding of drinkers at the frat and dorm parties. What this did was send the parties to the off-campus housing, contributing to the drinking and driving problem. Don't get me wrong-- I am all for tighter rules-- its just that you often solve one problem and create another. The tragedies such as the alcohol poisoning deaths that have occurred on college campuses (the most recent was a girl at-- Michigan I believe) are awful. And yes, all too often problems are addressed after a tragedy-- such as the recent tightening of fire safety inspections at frats after the recent fire in Alabama. One of the beauties of Rice is the large number of student clubs and organizations. Perhaps the students interested can pursue a revamping of the campus alcohol policy. Perhaps there would be less resistance if it came from the students rather than the administration.</p>
<p>I agree that it's difficult to enforce prventative policies - this doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. There ought to also be more education about alcohol here - there currently is mandatory diversity training, but not much about alcohol at all.</p>
<p>I don't have a huge problem with the alcohol policy, and am not sure that it needs to me revamped. I have a problem with the fact that it is seen by many as a joke. </p>
<p>Do you know how we were educated about the policy the week after orientation? Late one night a big group of upper classmen go door to door with a shopping cart full of alcohol and a stereo. They come into your room and explain that if you are having a party you have to keep the door closed and turn off the music when opening the door to let people in or out. Obviously this is impractical and never followed, but we were a little too shocked to question this at the time. Then we were offered our choice of any of the alcohol in the cart. I thought it was a pretty strange way to introduce new freshman to the alcohol policy.</p>
<p>We also had a brief talk from the president of our colege (a student) who basically told us that we are never ever to call houston police, but ought to let RUPD handle alcohol problems, since a lot more people will get in trouble if HPD comes. Also, we were jokingly told that we better not have the music so loud that the patients in the med center come over to party. </p>
<p>And that was basically our alcohol education.</p>
<p>The lack of seriousness that this was treated with was actually pretty shocking to me. I think that before we necessarily redo our alcohol policy here, we should focus on getting this one to work, since it is obviously broken right now.</p>
<p>I probably am scaring off prospective students with my comments right now, and for that I apologize. I just want to reemphasize the fact right now that I both love rice a lot and do not drink. I am not sure that we necessarily have more drinking here than at other universities. This is an issue pretty much everywhere. There is so much to do at Rice other than drink and there is no pressure to drink. You are the only one who decides whether or not and how much you drink. Rice is a great school - don't let one issue turn you off, since there are SO many great things about rice that completely and totally outweigh the drinking.</p>
<p>Jen-
I agree with you on all fronts. It sounds like President Leebron is exploring reviewing activities and traditions on campus, although it is hard to know how much is truth and how much is rumor. I hope that students will encourage a "repair" of the ETOH policy-- at all colleges, not just Rice.</p>
<p>That's so weird - I live in Houston, and my best friend lives in the houses directly across from the dorms at Rice, and I've been around there so many weekend nights and never seen any party life at all. That is so. Weird.</p>