Ah, the Duke social scene--whipping boy of the faculty, administration and student body alike. It's not Harvard enough for the faculty and administration, and not Animal House enough for the student body. Poor decisions on the part of the administration have rendered social life here at Duke a veritable Frankenstein's monster.
With the recent developments in the off-campus scene, a bad situation is simply getting worse. One-by-one we are losing our on-campus opportunities and the off-campus scene is stepping in to fill the void. The repercussions of these situations are totally undesirable for all parties involved.
With the loss of the Hideaway a few years ago and the recent removal of some fraternities from campus, on-campus options are dwindling as quickly as Auburn's national title hopes. Programming alternatives of any significant appeal are rare and often poorly-advertised. This leaves the onus of social responsibility on, you guessed it, fraternities and a few selective houses, thus yielding the, "There's nothing to do on-campus but go to frat parties" complaint uttered so often by disenchanted upperclassmen.
Many of the problems in the University's social policy can be blamed on two misplaced priorities--decreasing the University's liability in the event of an accident and giving us a more "academic" (read: Ivy League) image. The removal of fraternities from Main West, as well as some of the weariness on the part of the administration to open a new on-campus bar stem from these priorities.
The effect of these policies is to place the safety of students lower on the priority ladder than the school's image and liability concerns. Take, for example, the ban on kegs. Instead of going to a party and having several beers, necessarily spaced out by the line to the keg, students, especially underage ones, are pounding shots of liquor before they go out, a practice that is significantly more dangerous to the individual, but does hide the alcohol culture, which is good for the school's image.
Consider as another example of the University's poor priorities, the lack of an on-campus bar. Despite a clearly stated desire on the part of the student body, the University has failed to open a bar to replace the Hideaway, despite areas like McClendon Tower, which seem perfect for such an establishment. Instead, we have a new media center and games room. As great as both of those facilities are, if anyone in the administration considers them a valid substitute for a bar or party, he or she is sorely mistaken. The lack of on-campus bars forces students to go to bars off-campus, increasing the incidence of drunk driving, unsupervised binge drinking and other dangerous behaviors.
Certainly, not all of the on-campus social alternatives should be alcoholic ones. A significant portion of the student body does not drink, and an even larger one drinks only rarely. However, we are also extremely lacking in on-campus dry events, with a few exceptions. The "21 Night Stand" seems to be a promising series of events, but what are we supposed to do after that?
The final piece of the puzzle that is the social debacle at this University is the off-campus party scene. Necessitated by the removal of some selective groups from campus and the heavy regulation of on-campus events, a significant portion of the social scene has forcibly migrated off-campus. This is yet another remarkable unsafe situation that has been created by detrimental University policies.
With that said, it is unreasonable to blame the University solely for the movement of fraternities off-campus. Groups that have been forced off-campus are there for a reason--repeated violations of University policies and failure to follow restrictions imposed as punishment. These groups are responsible for their actions and have no excuse to complain about their situations.
The problems are only going to get worse if nothing changes. Members of the administration have expressed a lackadaisical attitude and lack of vision in regards to the future of social life at Duke, so the chance for change and improvement is fairly slim. If we are to stem the steady flow of social life to a significantly more dangerous, less regulated off-campus setting, both the administration and student body are going to have to make some significant steps.
It is absolutely necessary for the University to loosen some of its policies regarding parties and alcohol, as the current ones represent a stranglehold for on-campus social events. Duke obviously cannot openly condone underage drinking, and it would be unfair to expect it to do so, but some steps could be made without such a commitment. Call on fraternity national organizations to bring back kegs, bring back the Hideaway or something like it, and bring us solid non-alcohol related programming. We need more concerts on the quads, more theatrical productions and the like. These few steps would represent a significant gesture on behalf of the University towards the students, and would certainly ameliorate the situation.
If the University is to make such concessions to students, it's high time we took some responsibility for our actions. There seems to be a fairly prevalent attitude here on campus that we should be treated as adults but allowed to behave as children. Things like binge drinking are perfect examples of the complete irresponsibility with which we often approach life here at Duke.
With a little leeway from the administration and a lot of responsibility on the part of the student body, it would be possible to significantly improve the on-campus social scene. Otherwise, we'll just continue on the road towards a complete movement of social life off-campus and to an increase in the tragedies that come all too often with underground, heavy consumption of alcohol--things like sexual assault, drunk driving and alcohol poisoning. Nobody wants that, so let's do something to avoid it.
Brian Vetter is a Trinity sophomore. His column appears every third Tuesday.
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