Underage drinking probation

<p>My son has informed us that him and many of his friends received probation for being caught drinking ( in the dorms). We will be receiving a letter from the college(that is the reason I believe he let us know). We are not at all happy about this. We do not condone underage drinking and have spoken severely to him in regards to this matter. However I do understand this sort of thing does happen and is part of the college experience for many. </p>

<p>I understand many college freshman make mistakes and not always use the best judgment. Does any one have experience and or advice for how the probation system works. I know he is on probation till the beginning of next semester. What other implications may occur??</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/offices/odsd/pdf/CS%20Matrix%208-24-11.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/offices/odsd/pdf/CS%20Matrix%208-24-11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The first offense is nothing more than a slap on the wrist. I believe that more than half of the freshman class gets in trouble at least once. If he gets in trouble again while on probation, things get a little more serious. I’ve had a friend who has got in trouble probably like 5 times between freshman and sophomore year and he’s just has to go to a few meetings. I think the disciplinary action is intended to scare students more than anything else. I have yet to hear of anyone being suspended and people have done some pretty dumb stuff.</p>

<p>Thanks BCHSEAGLE. That makes me feel better.</p>

<p>Hi, there are a couple of different “probations”— if he is on residence hall probation that is one thing, but if he is on University probation, that is more “serious” It would be worth your while to find out what kind of probation he was given. Residence hall violations typically don’t end up on transcripts, while University violations can, depending on the school Good Luck!</p>

<p>I’m a current freshman and can’t even count how many people I know on probation. I would not worry about that at all. The next strike is a big step up in severity though, but that’s about all there is to worry about.</p>

<p>unfortunately, it appears that most of the student body spends the majority of its time partying and drinking rather than studying. Not to say your S is a bad kid, he is merely following the crowd but at almost $60k a year, it is disheartening that more scholarly activities are not being pursued as avidly as the opportunity to imbibe every night of the week!</p>

<p>BC is a work hard play hard mentality. The above statement that “most of the student body spends a majority of its time partying and drinking rather than studying” could not be farther from the truth. A typical BC student works hard Monday-Friday so that he or she has time time to enjoy themselves on the weekend. Students were admitted because of their outstanding academic achievements which they continue at BC. As long as your son maintains a high GPA and stays out of trouble, he deserves the opportunity to go out and have fun after a long week. Whether that involves drinking is a personal choice that he is going to have to make. Plenty of people choose not to.</p>

<p>Marbles 44 My son is not imbibing every night of the week. He is in the honors program and had a 3.70 gpa last semester. He is also very involved at the school. However I am not naive to believe that parties and drinking are not a part of the college culture. I do hope he takes his probation seriously. There is a lot more to the college experience than just studying and academic pursuits.</p>

<p>Dear marbles44 : You wrote the following.</p>

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<p>We recommend your spending a night in most of the dorms - not on a Saturday night, but on a weekday night. How about an evening at the O’Neill Library or Bapst Library? You will get an education in more ways than one.</p>

<p>Beach…I’m sure your son is a good kid. The problem with drinking and partying is that it is a huge distraction for everyone not just the kids that are involved with the event. I’m glad that BC takes the issue serious and that letters and discipline are issued for violations. I agree with you that college should be enjoyable. My hope is that more time gets spent on academics than ripping it up. There are plenty of highly capable intelligent students at BC and they should keep their eyes on the prize…the best Jesuit Collegiate education available in the United States.</p>

<p>ScottJ:</p>

<p>I see a possible contradiction in your post. </p>

<p>One could argue that if the dorms weren’t party-cental, even during so-called ‘quiet week,’ students would not have to be camped out in the libe. :)</p>

<p>btw: a large portion of the student body do not have classes on Friday, so the ‘weekend’ starts on Thursday for such students (if not Wednesday).</p>

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<p>If true, the College should be embarrassed.</p>

<p>Dear bluebayou : Your post makes complete sense and I am not sure that my intent in posting to marbles44 emerged. Both marbles44 and I have exchanged messages on this entire subject. </p>

<p>Coming back to the intent of my original note in this thread, the during-the-week activities, both in-dorm and in-library, demonstrate the level of higher academics that one would expect from Boston College.</p>

<p>My posting juxtaposing dorm life and library studies was at best weak.</p>

<p>I believe the “more than half the freshman class” comment refers to the strictness of BC regarding underage drinking.</p>

<p>beach:</p>

<p>yeah, I get what the comment was about. My comment was purposely vague and open-ended because it can be construed in different ways (which is what I intended). :)</p>

<p>@marbles44: Your initial post generalized and created some possible misconceptions. Not sure if you are a student, or a parent, or a passerby on here, but maybe you (or your child) are among the student type who do spend every night in a room drinking instead of contributing to the campus. Regardless, in terms of logical rigor I thought your comments were off-base. I’m a junior at BC, and I can say from having visited friends on a bunch of other campuses both during the week and during weekends, that BC is no different from most college campuses. In terms of drug use, it is actually much tamer, and in terms of alcohol use, I see little difference. Of course I, like you, am basing it on my own little view, but I guess the point is that there is no generalization that can be made. </p>

<p>BC is a campus where more than half of the students probably have the occasional drink, mainly on the weekends; many students don’t drink at all and find NO pressure to start, and some are complete drunks who are in fact wasting their time and money and mostly hang around with other drunks. But the problem is not a week-long widespread problem, and the extent to which students do the wrong thing is not out of alignment with other colleges. To be sure, leaving for college does set some kids adrift…The opportunity to imbibe every night of the week (or smoke pot every night of the week, or go out to clubs every night, or have sex every night, or play XBox until 2AM every night, or order nothing but bacon pizza every night…) is typical of college for some number of students who lack the maturity to apply balance to their life. </p>

<p>When it comes to disciplinary action, BC happens to be more strict than the average – and more likely to recognize and address such issues – for two reasons: (1) It has the “rep” for partying, driven in large part (in my opinion) by the tailgate scene at football games where alums contribute to this in irresponsible ways by allowing some students to get drunk at their tailgate sites, and (2) as a Catholic university it feels the need to retain some semblence of restraint & propriety, whether for PR reasons or for student welfare, or for both. Painting this with a wide brush as you did can end up making some thinnk that the behavior is the norm for the campus, when in fact most BC students would agree it is not. Work hard, play hard is the way most BC students approach their time on campus. </p>

<p>As an aside, regarding probationary actions, a student at BC can get writtten up for simply being “in the presence of <insert forbidden=”" substance="" or="" activity="" here="">", so the quantity or percentage of students who have probationary actions against them is misleading if one wishes to measure actual drinking. My girlfriend got probation last year and she has never had a drink in her life. She just happened to be in a dorm room where 5 girls were drinking beers and 3 were not. All 8 got writtten up.</insert></p>