Making CSC a wet campus could promote healthy alcohol consumption

As college students we’re all aware that some (most) students participate in the ingestion of alcoholic substances. According to national studies, over 40 percent of college students engage in episodic drinking, which is defined as having 4-5 drinks consecutively.

Furthermore, 50 percent of minors have reported they find it easy to obtain alcohol. College is a time where students are going to explore and experiment with numerous different things; however, making a college campus a dry one does not necessarily make it safe.

The intention of having CSC be a dry campus is to discourage underage drinking and, for those over 21, safe drinking. However, the only precedent it sets in place is for students to get drunk off campus and then stumble back to the dorms, or even worse, drive back to the dorms in their drunken state.

In some cases, students end up drunk and belligerent in an unsafe environment, putting them in a vulnerable, and possibly dangerous situation. Fifty percent of sexual assault cases occur while the victim, or assailant, are intoxicated. There are numerous universities paving the way in alcohol consumption on campus; allowing it has allowed them to better regulate it, even sell it in places on campus.

Perhaps it is CSC’s turn to lead by example and better our institution by presenting students with real world freedoms, rather than attempting to put students off drinking through the threat of punishment.