COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

My oldest son is a freshman and living in a fraternity at a university in the west. Alcohol flows freely, in fact in a recent visit, cases of beer were made available to anyone who chose to consume. Regardless of age.

The argument that safe places should be made available for students to drink is quite delusional. If one thinks for a moment that students will stay in one place to drink, that is safe, is not dealing with reality.

I wonder if there are any lawyers that would be willing to defend that position.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of answers exist or what alternatives are available. Maybe putting greater sanctions on colleges, fraternities, and sororities might be part of the answer. However it has not met with much success in the past.

I would challenge fraternities to become alcohol free and encourage their members to be the same. Put the same kinds of sanctions on students for consuming alcohol in frats and sororities as they would for breaking other rules.

Secondly, down play the importance of alcohol as a social mixer and elevate other activities to take its place. One way I believe we can change the priority placed on alcohol is to begin to make it socially unacceptable.

I fear for the safety of my son, however, he is now an adult and must make decisions that can potentially impact the rest of his life. I just hope he makes the right decisions along the way.

-- Randal Town, Coordinator of Intervention Programs, Educational Service District 105, Yakima, WA (posted 11/5, 10:25 a.m., E.S.T.)

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