According to this morning's News and Observer, UNC is considering allowing alcohol in the new private suites and club boxes being added as part of the Kenan Stadium renovation. It's just an idea at this point and could be achieved through sales or BYO. Ironically, less than 2 months ago, the Daily Tar Heel reported that student alcohol poisonings on campus has 'grown rapidly in the past few years.'
Fifty-one cases of student alcohol poisoning were reported last school year, up from 28 in the 2007-08 school year and three the year before, according to data collected by the Office of the Dean of Students.
EMS has already reported 23 cases to the office as of Oct. 1 this semester.
The data is based solely on cases that required EMS assists, said Dean Blackburn, assistant dean of students. Victims of alcohol poisoning who live off campus do not always appear in the report.
Chapel Hill police cited the increase in alcohol poisonings as reason for their increased enforcement of alcohol violations.
Following the environmental management method, developed by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, UNC has taken proactive measures to eliminate or at least reduce this trend of alcohol abuse. So is this new plan to allow alcohol for the rich at football games counter-productive?
"I acknowledge there's a philosophical issue, and I acknowledge it's a change in what our policy has been," said Dick Baddour, UNC-CH's athletics director. "I don't see it as out of step with what you find in arenas all across the country." (News & Observer, 12-6-09)
Is the fact that other campuses do this an acceptable justification for providing a message counter to the efforts to reduce student abuse?
Comments
Does anyone honestly believe
Does anyone honestly believe that allowing alcohol in these luxury boxes will impact drinking among students before, during or after games or on campus in general in any way? If students want to drink they will. The solution to decreasing alcohol abuse among college students is not prohibition it is education.
Money Honey
"Money, honey If you want to get along with me."Elvis Presley
Exactly...
Money. It's the same reason you can still smoke in Country Clubs but not in bars. Some rules don't apply to rich people, especially when they are the ones making the rules.
They can fly it in
At their new airport or at the old one. Maybe they can put a helipad on top of the luxury boxes.I don't think it says much about student drinking, but it does let you know who the football games are really for.I think it's ridiculous that the players aren't paid. They could get part of the parking too.
Herald-Sun Letter
There's a letter from Ronald E. Bogle. a retired Superior Court judge who works with the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers, in this morning's Herald Sun. He sums up my concerns quite elegantly: