NOTES FROM THE DESK

Author: Jack Lysohir

Despite such exceptions as Mormonism and Xenia House, humans have depended on alcohol at social engagements for thousands of years. Take wedding celebrations; do matrimonial vows make them fun? I don't think so. Or, how about your parents dinner parties; do middle-aged suburbanites really have that much hillarious stuff to laugh about? I highly doubt it.

How then does a college balance this age-old social expectation of alcohol use with laws banning underage drinking? Like many other complex issues, there must be a compromise. For Middlebury, the old social house system was just that compromise. Social house parties were moderately safe; it was hard enough to get beer that people would not become extremely intoxicated, there were plenty of people around should someone become ill, and hard liquor was conveniently absent. Now thanks to new policies that encourage parties sponsered by the commons, which mandate two forms of identification to enter the "beer garden," coupled with guest lists at social houses, underage students are increasingly obliged to do their drinking off campus. But when the law infiltrates off-campus watering holes, alcohol use is squeezed into places where abuse becomes virtually inevitable. Student drinking now increasingly manifests itself in the form of Popov shots and Pass-O-Guava chasers in places like B2South, a decidedly sad situation for all involved.

It astonishes me that the administration thinks they can eradicate underage drinking on a rural campus like ours. Whether or not Old Chapel believes in the viability of their dream, they have already raised a white flag on any type of compromise. Instead of finding a way to allow for healthy and limited drinking, they have endorsed a policy of alcoholic abstinence that may well mark Middlebury College as a sad martyr in the nationwide struggle to keep students safe from alcohol abuse. Therefore, I challenge the administration, the student body and the new task force on social life to find a new compromise - a way to get alcohol into the hands of minors in the safest possible way. Students will drink, that we can count on, but their safety in doing so lies wholly in the policies of the College. I recommend that those with power use it wisely.

Jack Lysohir

Assistant Opinions Editor