Stop Binge Drinking

There is nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in moderation, and we support the staff's recommendation to students to "exercise moderation and good judgment" in their drinking habits.

There are many things wrong, however, with binge drinking, not least of which are destructive behavior and illness or poisoning as a result. If the administration followed the staff's suggestion to "remain deliberately lenient" in enforcing alcohol guidelines, it would be caught in an irresponsible--and ludicrous--position.

A study last spring of 140 campuses throughout the nation reported that nearly half of college students binge drink. Henry Weschler, lecturer on social psychology at the School of Public Health, who conducted the study, found that 44 percent of college students bing drink, or consume five drinks on a single occasion at least once every two weeks. Harvard students are no exception.

Admittedly, the College cannot stop every instance of drinking at Harvard. To do so would be impossible. But it does have an obligation to stop students who drink too much from hurting others and hurting themselves. Given Harvard parties dependence on alcohol, the popularity of beer joints like the Grille and the many students who "can't have fun" on weekends without two drinks, alcohol is a problem the administration must and should address. The letter was a good first step.

The staff blithely states that "Harvard students are intelligent enough to realize that alcohol is a social drug that needs to be used responsibly." If that were true, would there have been a need for the administration's letter citing two recent "life-threatening" incidents involving the use of alcohol?

There is a difference between being intelligent enough to do well in school and being intelligent enough to realize that seven shots of vodka will someday, somehow, catch up with you. Many brilliant Harvard students deliberately choose not to understand the second point."

And alcohol's "illicit nature" has little to do with whether students drink. Once an underage student who has been binging illegally turns 21, that underage student is not likely to go dry. The administration can do nothing about the national drinking age; any considerations of what to do about binge drinking must be outside national concerns.

We applaud the administration's letter, and if it results in a crackdown on binge drinking--if it saves people's lives and improves the quality of other people's lives--so much the better.