As of the week prior to spring break, both IFC and Panhel passed a new social policy that is affecting the Greek community, who typically rely on "mixers" for their nightly party agendas. The new social policy is a restriction on fraternity house funds, meaning frats at Lehigh can no longer use their house funds to purchase hard alcohol. This has been talked about for a long time within the Greek community, but bringing this plan into action is predicted to have both positive and negative results. The bigger concern of the Greek community is whether or not this new social plan is actually going to work, and if not, how long is it going to last. So far, I've seen majority of fraternities on this campus take the new social rule fairly seriously. However, in order for it to work, all must commit to making the change. The question is, is it worth it?
Here are the proposed positive aspects of this change in social policy at Lehigh:
-Reduced number of students (mainly freshmen in the first semester) being sent to the hospital for alcohol related incidents
-Lehigh police claim they will no longer bust parties on the Hill (in fraternity homes on the campus) if hard alcohol is not present; therefore, Lehigh students will no longer have to venture into the streets of Southside Bethlehem to attend these "mixer" events
-No longer having to look at the God awful Bankers bottles - it is actually poison
However, this new proposed idea is expected to bring all perps to Lehigh's campus. There are many questionable aspects of this new social policy and what is expected to come of it. For example:
-I am not quite sure how the Lehigh police would ever be able to walk into a party, see a freshman who is clearly not of the legal drinking age consuming a cup of beer or glass of wine. Regardless of what type of alcohol it is, if a cop sees a minor drinking, isn't it his duty to stop it? How are the cops honestly going to turn a cheek to underage drinking - no matter what the beverage is.
-Alcohol is alcohol. Though hard alcohol is mainly the reason students from Lehigh are shipped off to the hospital semester after semester (i.e. too many shots), other alcoholic beverages can end you up in the same place.
-Beer and wine? This campus is about to double in size. Actually.
-What most students, including freshmen, will do to take matters into their own hands in order to make sure they are "wasted" before attending one of these hard alcohol-free mixers: pound shots during their own pregames in order to be nearly incoherent by the time they get to the party. Since there will be no hard alcohol, people will find it necessary to take matters into their own hands. This will serve as the biggest problem this new social policy will result in.
My question is, what are other students thoughts on this change of "Lehigh culture." Personally, I see way more negativity radiating from the idea than I do positivity, but maybe I'm just being pessimistic because I just turned 21 and it is finally legal for me to drink whatever alcoholic beverage I desire. I am interested to see how this will pan out, and whether or not this new policy will survive into next semester. Only time will tell.
