Letters to the Editor

Alcohol Awareness Week was missed

To the Daily:

How could the University cancel Alcohol Awareness Week? Alcohol is the most abused substance on this campus, yet we decide to cancel Alcohol Awareness Week? I know that money is not the underlying factor because this institution has the biggest budget for a state-run school in the country. I hope it wasn't due to the fact that alcohol isn't affecting our students because we have had two deaths on campus this year where alcohol was said to be a factor.

So whose bright idea was it to cancel Alcohol Awareness Week? Alcohol continues to plague our society, claiming too many lives each year. How can the University justify and be content with canceling events that have a chance to enlighten students with the dangers and effects of alcohol.

Alcohol is an ongoing problem for our campus and our society. We need to look no further than the recent tickets given to underage students at house and fraternity parties. How many people need to pay the price before the University opens its eyes? Alcohol Awareness Week should never have been canceled.

Andrew Potts

LSA senior

Articles build a negative stereotype

To the Daily:

The past few weeks the Daily has been filled with articles about the negativities of the Greek system, which really isn't something new. I am not responding to one article in particular but to the message the Daily is sending to all of the non-Greeks by these articles.

The Daily has a skewed version of what is going on in the Greek system and on this campus as far as alcohol is concerned. Yes, three fraternity parties were broken up by the AAPD and minor in possession citations were issued, but a house party was broken up as well. I urge the non-Greek students at the University, not to be so naive as to ignore this fact.

What you don't know is that the fraternities and sororities on this campus have ways to protect themselves from the AAPD coming into our parties. By having guest lists and door monitors, we can eliminate any police intrusion. But why would you care, right? You don't go to Greek functions. That is exactly my point. You go to house parties and block parties and apartment parties. And by doing this, you are more at risk than the Greek system is.

Only 20 percent of this campus is Greek, including Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association and the Black Greek Association. So I hope the other 80 percent of you watch your backs. Remember that the next time you are standing in line for the keg at a random house party.

And to the Daily, thank you for nothing. No matter what the Greek system does, it is wrong in your collective opinion, which is sad considering you rarely have enough of the facts to have a clear picture.

Erika Detweiler

Alpha Xi Delta Chapter

Experience is the key to responsible drinking

To the Daily:

In the article about new drinking sanctions, the death of the Michigan State University student from 24 shots of alcohol is listed as a reason for stricter penalties. The article also said that he had just turned 21 years old, and was therefore a legal adult.

The problem with our society is the law makers are finding it more and more difficult to accept the fact that in this country 18-year-olds are adults, and should not be treated as babies. That person died probably because of his lack of exposure to alcohol and it's consequences.

The largest reasons for teenage drinking is because they think it's cool to break the law - it's purely for the excitement of knowing that they aren't supposed to or they're just curious.

I worked at a bar for a year and a half, and it's not uncommon to see someone on their 21st birthday drinking too heavily. In the summer, the bar ran a teenage club, and occasionally kids would sneak alcohol into the club. Once there was a young girl carried out and taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.

Many would say that this is an example of a "bad" girl, but it's not. It's an example of a young girl trying something new and not knowing how to do it responsibly. Responsibility with alcohol is not something that you can tell someone about, it's something they learn from experience.

I think it's better to have that experience gained in a situation where there's someone responsible overseeing the situation, like parents - not a bunch of friends doing it just to say at school the next day that they were trashed over the weekend.

When is the idea of punishing adults for drinking going to go to extremes? As a group of legal voting adults, when are we (18-20.9 year olds) going to stand up for our rights as adults? I know many people well over 21 that would also vote to lower the drinking age to 18. The only reason it's at 21 is because the federal government holds funding over the heads of the state legislators. I would also like to know, why 21? What makes a 21-year-old any less of an adult than a 30-year-old?

Gary Daniels

Engineering junior

Selection of articles is 'sad'

To the Daily:

Excuse me for thinking that William Bowen's lecture on race being an important factor in regards to admissions would be a headlining article. What was I thinking when I thought that this would be an article that all people on campus who did not attend the lecture would be genuinely interested in reading. It is sad commentary on the Daily finds a fraternity's charter to be of greater importance than an issue that affects us all.

When the needs of a group of people who are mad because they can no longer live and drink under the same roof take precedence over the issue of diversity on this University's campus, I am reminded all to quickly that things haven't changed.

Sarah Thankachan

UROP Peer Advisor

Schillaci's column was 'inane'

To the Daily:

I've got a message for Jack Schillaci: Underage drinking is illegal. It's as simple as that. By publicly thumbing his nose at the law, calling it "sanctimonious bullshit," he is waiving any rights he may once have had to bitch and moan about the cops busting up your parties and giving him an MIP ("We are not our University's children," 11/17/98).

The ironic self-contradictory nature of his column was hilarious! He goes around whining about the drinking age, claiming that most people under 21 are responsible enough to handle alcohol. But just paragraphs earlier, he revealed that during his first weekend at the University he got so drunk that he had a "head-splitting, sense-numbing hangover" the next morning!

Is that what one would call responsible behavior? The fact that he can't even realize how inane he sounds proves to me that he is in no way mature enough to handle alcohol.

If he would stop grumbling and look at it from the cops' point of view, he would realize that they are just doing their job and this is not a "publicity stunt;" this is a warning to underage drinkers everywhere that the cops aren't just going to ignore their illegal actions anymore. They are going to start giving out tickets until people realize that maybe getting ass-drunk every weekend isn't worth the risk of multiple MIPs.

Matthew Schwartz

LSA sophomore

11-25-98