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By The Editorial Board
September 15, 2006
Arriving at Georgetown as a freshman is incredibly hectic. Between endless paperwork, buying books and the desperate dash to make new friends, the new alcohol tutorial which first year students will be required to take beginning this year may seem like an unnecessary burden.
There exists a solid contingent of undergraduates who choose to not drink at all, but the vast majority of Georgetown students choose otherwise. For this reason, the alcohol tutorial may become the most important of all the workshops and meetings in which freshmen partake at the beginning of the academic year. Until now, the university only required those found in violation of the school's alcohol policy to complete a similar course. Its new intention, however, will not be to punish, but to educate.
While trying to eliminate underage drinking altogether would be both unpopular and impossible to accomplish, the required tutorial offers the next best option, as consuming alcohol safely is of paramount importance on a college campus. Knowledge about the effects and dangers of excessive alcohol consumption may help to discourage unsafe binge drinking.
Imbibing alcohol can be uncharted territory for the many Hoyas who never experimented with drinking during high school, and the tutorial will be especially important precisely for this group of students. Information about alcohol's harmful effects as well as safe ways to avoid them is an invaluable tool to anyone thrown suddenly into a world saturated with alcohol, as college often tends to be.
Given that we live on a campus full of stairs, hills, balconies and rooftops, education about proper alcohol safety could prevent countless potential disasters. This education also has the potential to dramatically decrease the calls to Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, who too often must take dangerously intoxicated students to the emergency room.
The only problem with the new course is its timing. With partying ubiquitous before and after the freshman move-in, this education may occur too late to reach its maximum level of efficacy. Since the tutorial itself is given online, freshman ideally should complete the class before arriving on campus. This slight change to the policy would not only improve effectiveness but also compliance. With fewer priorities during the period before matriculation, the undivided attention of incoming students would be more easily attained.
Other universities, including Syracuse University, have administered this course successfully. Let us hope that its proper usage may prevent the slew of preventable injuries which occur every fall when freshmen arrive on campus. Knowing how to drink responsibly and having a great time are not mutually exclusive. Being lectured about how to party is no one's idea of a fun afternoon, for sure, yet one can be certain that the administration is providing a necessary safeguard against the dangers of alcohol by implementing this new policy.
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