Earlier this month, an email was sent to Stanford University students from the university president saying the campus alcohol policy may change— for the stricter. Students were outraged. Prohibition might be in town. Dust off your hip flasks, garden hoses, and hot water bottles because it looks like fraternities could become 21st Century speakeasies. Oh, the humanity!
However, what the Stanford administration suggested is a far cry from a complete ban on alcohol. It would just be a ban on hard liquors; beer and wine would still be hunky dory. As someone from the University of Oregon, an actual “dry” campus, I initially had a little sympathy for the Stanford kids’ outrage. They do not— cannot— understand what college prohibition really feels like, not until they are driven to brew their own hard cider under their dorm room beds (something a few of my fellow U-21ers have done here in Oregon).
I set out to prove this by first chatting with Stanfordians Heather Kramer and Jake Conant to get the real scoop and then some deep Internet digging. I wanted to know: Are wet campuses more fun? Are they more dangerous? Was it possible for students living on a wet campus to ever truly understand the oppression of a dry one? To save you from pawing through the slippy slopes of an internet search involving the words “university,” “alcohol,” and “legal,” I’ve outlined what I found on the whole wet vs. dry campus debate.
Social stigma fades with wet campus policies
“No one knows what’s in your red cup,” said Heather, a sophomore at Stanford. She mentioned even in her sorority and looking back on her freshman dorm, people were cool with whatever your drinking preferences were. Drinking wasn’t immediately tied to deviancy. Even though most people aren’t seeking out an Animal House experience, things become black and white when prohibition comes to town. The penalties are as severe for those who just want to sip some wine while watching Arrested Development as they are for the girl taking twelve shots down the hall and passing out alone in her dorm room.
Rule breakers are rule breakers. The community gets polarized when half of students are drinkers willing to risk it while the others are afraid of association perchance the university finds out, putting things like scholarships in jeopardy. Heather said she likes hanging out with her friends that drink, but things would have been different if she felt like a serious rule breaker in doing so.
Dry campuses encourage academic excellence (…kind of)
Think of all-girls and all-boys schools. The idea is to eliminate a distraction (cute boys and/or cute girls) from the educational environment in order for kids to learn more. Does it work? Not really. Just look at Catholic Schoolgirl Syndrome or the Dead Poets Society. On the “Benefits of Banning Booze at Your University” list, improved academic success is consistently cited. By eliminating the additional distraction of alcohol from the learning environment, students would excel, right? So far no studies have been able to prove that dry campuses have better academic outcomes than wet ones. But don’t pick up that Dead Week Daiquiri quite yet. Low GPAs and high alcohol consumption are closely tied, which is true whether or not a campus allows booze.
Stronger sense of community on wet campuses
If you’re walking down the hall of your dorm and pass a room full of laughing people, you’re bound to poke your head in to see what’s up– unless the door is shut. When alcohol is off limits, physical barriers appear within the college community. Instead of RAs being a cool older brother or sister, they’re the snooping parent. Even if RAs don’t care what’s brewing in your room, they face high consequences personally if they allow alcohol use to fly under the radar. This means that residents are more likely to close doors and disconnected communities fester.
Dry campuses are safer (not really though)
Heather told me about this creepy, dark alleyway between two frat houses near her campus in Palo Alto. She said she would never ever in a million years go down that alley at night after a party, but who in their right mind would? Every campus has their shady corners and areas to avoid, especially at night or while intoxicated. The University of Oregon, where alcohol is technically banned, sends out regular emails reporting various assaults on or around campus. Walking around a campus or city at night has its risks– being hit by a drunk driver, mugged by a stranger, sexually assaulted by an acquaintance– alcohol policy aside.
Wet or dry, students will do whatever the hell they want
“People are just going to do what they want to do, find a way to do it, and that’s kind of the end of it,” said Jake, a freshman at Stanford. “We’re college kids. We all saw college movies and we want to copy them directly.” Even when a university pulls out all the stops to keep students away from the lure of the Franzia and Skyy, people, especially 18 to 20 year-olds, have free will. They’re going to do what they want whether it’s good for them, their sanity, or anybody else. In the words of one Robin Williams, “Carpe, carpe diem. Seize the day, boys.”
If I were an administrator responsible for creating a new alcohol policy, I’d hop onto the wet campus train in a heartbeat– lessen the sweet allure of the forbidden fruit. They say you want what you can’t have, which holds true for me, the Stanford kids, and most likely the 20 million other students pursuing higher education at American universities. So, in the spirit of things, I’ll leave you with a toast: Raise your beverages, both fermented and pure! Here’s to a future of safer walks home, a future in which RAs are our buddies not wardens, a future of open doors and closer communities. Here’s to making memories before the blanket of mortgages, family obligations, and life settles. Cheers, commandos!
What would you do if you were the one writing your university’s alcohol policy? Would you go for wet? Dry? Damp? How have you been affected by alcohol policies— both positively and negatively? Any tips for brewing hard cider under your dorm bed? Let us know!
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