Okay, had to say something. I'm in Korea right now which has a slightly lower drinking age than America. Anyway drinking here is not as looked down upon as in America and does that make people here more responsible and have a more mature attitude towards drinking? No! and I do mean a big, emphatic no! I teach university English here, so I should know. I can't even tell you how many students showed up to my class with hangovers in the middle of the week. So the idea that not looking harshly at drinking will make people want to do it less does not work.
Actually, it's the lack of overall freedom from their parents and sudden freedom when they get to college that causes them to drink so much (and I mean a lot), not Korean society telling them alcohol is bad (korea, while having big taboos on sex, is really open about alcohol).
Anyway, I do believe in America's freedom and don't think sororities and frats should be made completely dry. I understand that young people like to drink and party (seems those two words are almost synonymous these days, huh?) But I do think each chapter should take the responsibility on itself to simply conduct themselves with behavior that doesn't disgrace their national sorority or fraternity.
Right now I'm in the process of writing an opinion article about this Korean book called "The Most Common Things Americans in Their 20s Say." Among the many things I find wrong with this book, in describing American sororities and fraternities, he tells all his Korean readers that they party not only on the weekend, but every night of the week, getting drunk several times a week and in their drunken state, having sex with different people all the time and usually receiving Fs. Sorry for the run-on sentence, but I was really angry when I heard this because my GPA never dropped below a 3.5 and I didn't drink until I was 21. Some of my sisters did, but that certainly wasn't "all" that they did. I'm just saying we shouldn't (and fortunately, most of us don't) put the top priority on drinking. I hate to even think now what my Korean students are thinking about me when I tell them I was in a sorority, especially when I am so proud of it.
Don't make this man's book a true story!
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