Turbulent times on campus
Gary Caruso
Capitol Comments
These are turbulent times on the Notre Dame campus.
Students have been reacting to newly announced restrictions on alcohol consumption, dormitory functions and social gatherings. Following several protest demonstrations, student government leaders have attempted to seek a place at the table when the new policies are written in detail this summer. Thus far, it appears that University officials will offer lip service to the students and turn a deaf ear on them.
Just as it seemed that the administration would wiggle away from the student wrath as examination period approaches, the University must now circle the wagons to address a potential scandal involving student athletes. The deaf ears will soon turn to mute tongues.
Student government leaders should closely follow the schedule of University President Father Edward Malloy. If they had, they could have foreseen that Malloy, co-chairman of a study by the nationally constituted Task Force on College Drinking, was forced to institute changes on his campus before suggesting changes for others.
The task force of researchers, college presidents and students was convened in 1998 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. It would have been nice for Malloy, as co-chair, to have included a Notre Dame student to bring the unique du Lac experience to the table.
The study's numbers are impressive. The task force estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 1,400 deaths each year, 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking.
The more interesting statistics are the top categories of abusers. Freshmen, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers and athletes are the worst abusers of alcohol consumption and presumably the dead, injured, aggressors and rape victims. Notre Dame, with no fraternities or sororities, could have opted to use that fact to focus its new policy on the alcohol aspect. Rather, it chose to customize its policy to limit dormitory functions such as the time-honored SYR traditional dance.
Rather than focus on actual campus situations, Malloy was quoted referring to students on spring break vacation by saying, "All you have to do is look at a couple of cable television channels who cover spring break where endless groups of drunken students get up and say `I'm having the greatest time here' and then you recognize on the basis of these statistics what the fallout of the great time is."
As it has in the past during my undergraduate years and as has been its usual practice afterward, University officials tend to take a neutron approach to regulatory policies. In a recent phone conversation at half past midnight last night, one student leader sounded utterly exhausted and frustrated. The student wondered if attending Notre Dame was the right decision. The student said that all the student government leaders want is a place at the table to contribute positive recommendations and ask for clarification. Rather, students expect that their first review of the policy will be the final draft.
Will rectors and graduate students be permitted to possess so-called "hard" alcohol in the dormitories? Is there a possibility that a ban on dormitory dances can be changed or is it the University's way of limiting their liability? During football weekends will the University finally crack down on rowdy visitors who walk unhindered with open containers of beer across the campus quads?
College students like to drink. My generation was no exception. Neither is President Bush's children's generation. Addressing the problems associated with drinking is a difficult task. But until our society takes a more European attitude towards the matter so that young persons do not feel compelled to enhance their relaxation time after a tough academic regimen, the neutron bomb approach will continue for liability purposes.
Notre Dame is a wonderful place to visit and for most a wonderful place to attend college. The disheartening comments by the frustrated student leader about attending another university is a tragic commentary about campus life. With national attention about to focus on student athletes, the University vice can only be expected to further tighten.
Gary J. Caruso, Notre Dame class of '73, served in President Clinton's administration as a Congressional and Public Affairs Director. His column appears every other Friday, and his Internet address is Hottline@aol.com.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, April 12, 2002
