[DeltAlum]

I have to giggle a little at SAE'55's comment about the "Good ole days."

Let's see, as I recall those days, the drinking age for beer was 18. Of course the women had hours and had to be in by 10:30 PM on weekdays and 12:30 AM on Friday and Saturday.

Let's see what else I can recall. Oh yes. You could be drafted at 18, but couldn't vote until you were 21.

I didn't realize way back then how great we had it. (?)

Oh, and by the way, dry housing, dry campuses, sober sis, designated drivers and all of that have little or nothing to do with whether college students drink or not. They have nothing to do with parties.

What they have to do with is liability. Everyone knows that lots of college kids (OK, JAM, you're right, in my case, even high school students way back then - fake ID's aren't a new invention) are going to drink. Of course when Freddy Freshman or Susie Sophomore get drunk and get hurt (or die), the university, the chapter, the alumni, the national and anyone who was in a three county area are going to get sued by the parents.

Oh, and it might also be instructional to consider how much less insurance costs for sororities than a comparable fraternity. Or, thought about another way, how much of those insurance costs may be trimmed if a house/fraternity is dry. Then, there's the damage caused to our chapter houses by drinkers. (Over 90% of all insurance damage claims to fraternity houses are realted to alcohol consumption.)

Of course, we who have been around for a while have argued and debated the fairness and/or logic of this ad-nausium. It really doesn't matter in the long run, because that's the way it is. We live in a highly litigious society. Oh, and as a side note, people keep killing themselves and each other. At least five this year alone.

Personally, I think the drinking age for beer should be eighteen. But it isn't.

Maybe it would be if we could be (or had been in some of our cases) responsible in our consumption. But we're not.

Someday, this argument will be forgotten. Someday, all of the universities are going to say, ENOUGH! (Have you noticed that some already are?) Someday, assuming that the Greek System survives that long (it is possible to bleed to death by shooting yourself in the foot over and over again), someday when all the campuses are dry and all of the houses are either dry or closed, we can all debate...whatever.

Or, maybe we can just talk about the "Good ole days" when we had Greek Letter Organizations on campuses. Before they killed themselves from stupidity.

In the end, this isn't an argument about rights -- it's about responsibility. Or lack thereof.


(Editor's Note: DeltAlum, who has done his share of drinking and partying in his lifetime did not intend to go on this rant. He was just going to make a fun comment about the "Good ole days." But, as an alumni volunteer and division officer who gets a sick feeling in his stomach when he reads about another hospitalization or death or chapter closing is getting more and more frustrated and wonders how long he can continue to watch his brothers and sisters destroy the system he holds so dear.)