Having just stayed in the Netherlands for an extended stay of time I am able to make an observation. In America we try to legislate drinking and drugs, whereas in the Netherlands, they culturally are tolerant of usage but at the same time are very strict about their own usage, especially among friends and family. College kids, as a general rule, are not pot-heads nor pong-players. To me the issue of beer pong is not—excepting for the tables on the lawn issue—something to legislate. Change must come from media, society, parents, and kids, otherwise the symptom just changes form.

Brett, Texas, at 9:30 am EDT on August 8, 2008

Still way behind

Florida is way behind the 8-ball, here. Beer pong (AKA Beirut) is the drinking game of choice these days. Anecdotally, I’d give second place to Flip Cup, with Quarters, card games, and Seinfeld and other TV-related binging bringing up the rear. Most liberal arts schools (often less-beholden to greek money) have policy language specifically banning these behaviors, as well as defining in general terms the term “drinking game.” The truth is, drinking games contribute to intoxication by externally setting parameters on the frequncy and amount of alcohol consumption on behalf of each participant. As a former judicial officer and Resident Director, as well, I seldom sat across from a student facing intoxication charges who had not invested a respectable portion of his or her evening playing drinking games. Let’s not fool ourselves—blood alcohol contents of.20-.35 were fairly common among such students at the small liberal arts school, where I worked. I’m only too happy to have had the opportunity, through policy, to intervene. With the right judicial response, students are often grateful, at least in eventuality.

The IFC man at Florida is correct. There is no reasonable way to “police” for students playing games or becoming intoxicated aside from observing registered parties. No school asks campus police without cause to let themselves into a residence hall double, let alone a frat house, to see what’s taking place. I suppose the noise related with alcohol-induced hearing loss and large crowds is the most frequent cause for campus police intervention in such cases. As the group becomes more at risk of dangerous intoxication, it lets you know. They will literally shout it out! (at the same time, I hold the opinion that schools allowing reasonable, observed socialization with alcohol can get students in ambulances at the fastest rate. Students drinking alone don’t generate the same noise.)

As a former graduate assistant for Alcohol Policy Initiatives at U. Penn, I can tell you there are some pretty effective ways of ensuring compliance with drinking game regulations, as well as the rest, at least when it comes to the greeks, which represent a particularly high risk population among themselves, while providing venues for others to join in. Penn’s program takes some funding—it pays graduate students and former graduate students living in the area to work with the undergraduate hosts for on-campus parties (at Penn, almost entirely fraternities). Any unsafe, illicit, and unaltered actions or inactions are documented for various judicial bodies (IFC, OFSA, national chapters, Student Conduct) to hear. It’s hard for students to refute the structure of that system, as it typically results in a hearing by their peers. The police are only involved in the most alarming cirumstances.

Final note: I find it funny that Florida is just getting around to getting rid of keg stands as MANY others (though probably not peer institutions) have long since banned kegs in private houses. I suggest that campus do some self-study of what sort of drinking actually occurs there, and target the most high risk groups and places with some good policy (it’s out there!). It took the death of an alumnus to prompt this response at Penn. Without knowing what portion of the 1,700 annual alcohol-related student deaths is absorbed by Florida, I optimistically wish them better forsight.

Andy Lounder, at 10:55 am EDT on August 8, 2008

Anyone recommending the elimination of the Greek system is completely clueless about how higher education works. Get rid of the Greek system, and the overwhelming majority of alumni support will go with it.

Although I agree that the college drinking culture needs to change, I also believe institutions must stop the behavior using multiple strategies. University of Florida is taking a bold and necessary step. The drinking problem among students within the U.S. is very unique to the U.S. and cannot be solved through a European cultural lens.

James, at 12:05 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

The Smoking bottle

The cigarette smoking revolution is well underway with the walls and the halls of these illustrious institutions now cleansed of students (and faculty) lighting up and second-handing us all — now it appears it’s time for booze to be made the social villain, replacing it’s historic and rightful place as the social lubricant. Next up? Everything but Tofu!

Bill, The Michigan Guy, at 12:30 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

Bella,

You get an F in class management because I was not even in your class. If I had a class, I’d further give you a D- in reading comprehension for missing the point in the above quote.

Furthermore, I am somewhat torn as to whether you should receive an A in logic and a D in writing ability or an F in logic alone. You say, “It’s established that risky behavior is now as much a part of college life as classes.” But how does that relate to beer pong? That relates to a cultural problem that must be addressed. Thus, either your logic if faulty (e.g., “It’s established that risky behavior is now as much a part of college life as classes[, and therefore beer pong is bad]"), or you have poorly expressed the correlation between risky behavior being a part of college life and beer pong.

Before you jump all over me, note that I am joking above (while making some legitimate points). In all seriousness, however, I do not believe my analogy, although not fully elaborated upon in the article above, is “p-poor.” Here’s the main point: beer pong is not *the* main problem facing society (and in particular, college life). It is a much broader and deeper problem than that, and by focusing on a game, which I submit *does* have some positive attributes, the problem will not be solved.

Despite my graded ability in logic being an “F,” I will attempt to create another example. Let’s assume that beer pong is forever banned in this country. Do you think that alcohol will no longer be abused? Do you think that underage drinking will no longer be a problem?’

That being said, I do recognize how beer pong *could* cause *some* people problems. At the same time, you don’t ban driving cars while it is raining because studies show that more accidents occur during such times. Instead, you address the problems, e.g., it takes longer to stop, so you tell people give themselves more braking room; you are more likely to slide when going around a curve, so you slow down, etc. (Ah, sh*t. . . another logical analogy — sorry!) Instead of attacking a game, which is largely misunderstood by those trying to ban it, why are we not trying to approach the real problems at hand? The game is not, in and of itself, the problem.

Mr. Stripling asked me what I thought about schools banning beer pong. As I explained, there may very well be legitimate reasons to do so in some situations. For example, if an administrator told me that he or she was banning the game in college dormitories because he/she has found that setting up a beer pong table draws more underage students that drink, then let’s do it. At the same time, however, I’d hypothesize that banning that table alone will not stop underage people from coming together to drink. The problem is that those attacking the game do not even understand it and are ignoring the real issues at hand. Without fully investigating the reasons behind the various bans, I would suspect that the school-related bans are more logical than any bar-related bans. Nonetheless, I have only seen rare cases where the given logic behind such bans appeared reasonable (even if disagreeable).

Here is one last example. At The WSOBP III in Las Vegas in January 2008, the security sergeant was a big, serious-looking guy — he carried himself in such a way that you simply knew you did not want to mess with this guy. Sensing the sergeant’s somewhat apprehensive demeanor, I approached this gentleman the day before the event started, introduced myself, and made sure he knew I was there to help make sure everything went smoothly during the event. He showed absolute disgust towards me, and essentially said he could not believe what we were doing. By force (namely, him having to work at our event), however, he witnessed the event, and by the end of the event, the sergeant was enjoying himself, enjoying the event, and understood what beer pong is *really* about. While moving out the day after the event, the sergeant approached me and asked if he could buy a table from me to give to his teenage son.

I will conclude with this: I am more than willing to intelligently discuss this matter with any person that is open minded enough to understand both sides and that can appreciate the positive aspects of the game. To the extent that I can address problems with underage drinking and over consumption of alcohol, either personally or through BPONG.COM/The WSOBP, I will gladly help. If your goal is to simply attack the game itself while being too close minded to try to understand the game or to actually see the real problems at hand, any discussions would be less than productive.

Billy Gaines, BPONG.COM, at 2:35 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

Happy to be gone

I’m so happy I left my job as a t-t professor in the United States. Here in the UK, we have six pubs on my campus and I’ve never seen a drinking game going on. When you legalize drinking, alcohol is not as much of a big deal.

rml, at 3:15 pm EDT on August 9, 2008