Wear letters at a bar??

[BabyPiNK_FL]

I do not have a problem being in a bar or around alcohol. If I make a commitment to one or two then you will be hard pressed to find me doing otherwise. Being in a bar (even with letters) does not make you an alcoholic, an incontrollable drinker, or a bad person.

If I saw a group of women in their letters drinking, the only time I would think twice about it is if they were actually drunk. Just being present there doesn't mean they are going to exhibit poor behavior. Half the time, no one needs the letters on if they are drinking because if they start acting crazy someone will most certainly point it out.

Being around alcohol in letters isn't the problem. Alcohol is not the problem. It's people with piss poor judgment that are the problem.

If your org. says it's okay, then it's okay. If your org. says it's not, then it's obviously not. But I'm not out there worrying about so and so and their org.'s repuatation. It's not that deep.

[als463]

I agree with the fact that drinking excessively in letters is poor judgement. That's why I thought it was odd that the year I graduated from Penn State-University Park, I would say that a handful of chapters actually had "XYZ bar tour" shirts made up. I don't mean one or two girls in a chapter, I mean all of the seniors actually graduating. The point of the "bar tour" is to drink heavily-and (many, not all) Penn Staters are known for doing it well. I actually went on my bar tour with my sisters but, we had other stupid saying shirts made up for that reason alone.

One chapter that was on probation wore shirts that said something along the lines like, "We are on probation-so we are wearing our letters" on the back and the front had letters.

I don't really drink much but, when I do-I try not to wear my letters because I know how bad I can get.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by als463

One chapter that was on probation wore shirts that said something along the lines like, "We are on probation-so we are wearing our letters" on the back and the front had letters.

Wow. That's just sad.

[LΩVE]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

I do not have a problem being in a bar or around alcohol. If I make a commitment to one or two then you will be hard pressed to find me doing otherwise. Being in a bar (even with letters) does not make you an alcoholic, an incontrollable drinker, or a bad person.

If I saw a group of women in their letters drinking, the only time I would think twice about it is if they were actually drunk. Just being present there doesn't mean they are going to exhibit poor behavior. Half the time, no one needs the letters on if they are drinking because if they start acting crazy someone will most certainly point it out.

Being around alcohol in letters isn't the problem. Alcohol is not the problem. It's people with piss poor judgment that are the problem.

If your org. says it's okay, then it's okay. If your org. says it's not, then it's obviously not. But I'm not out there worrying about so and so and their org.'s repuatation. It's not that deep.

I think part of the alcohol "problem" is that it's made into such a problem. The first paragraph is right on point. There isn't anything wrong with drinking reposnsibly or going out to a bar. And honestly who gets drunk more often...the kids under 21 or over? In my experience getting drunk, for most people, has lost its appeal by 21, because at that point they are forced to grow up a little. School is harder, graduation is a lot closer, and their hangovers get progressively worse. For this reason I can understand chapters having a rule against drinking in letters, alums should be adult enough to make decisions without being kept in line by a myriad of rules.

We focus so often on alcoholalcoholalcohol we rarely focus on teaching adult behaviors and decision making skills. My undergrad experience has, in my opinion, identified alcohol has the "problem" in my chapter when that isn't the problem at all-lack of examples in leadership, lack of education, and lack of PATIENCE with college students, who, let's face it, WILL screw up are the problems.

The reason the rule about letters and alcohol that many of us have in place is because of liability. I've always had a little lack of patience with rabid rule followers who foam at the mouth at the sight of, for instance, a girl who didn't close her jacket all the way when smoking, a beer in the hand of someone who has letters on the wall in the background, or an occasional **** in letters, but it's the alcohol that bothers me the most. I have no problem whatsoever following it, but it isn't out of respect, it's out of fear of being connected with an alcohol binge gone wrong.

I try to be well groomed and well behaved when I wear my letters. I can have a glass of wine at dinner with family and friends and be both of those things, and that's still being respectful. I can also do that in a bar. Should I decide to go bat-shit crazy and drink myself silly, I'm being disrespectful, but then again, so is anything else that disrespects myself: whoring myself out, not praticing basic hygine, not doing my best in school, etc.

[lucgreek]

At my school you'd be hardpressed to find a social greek organization's members wearing their letters at the bar. Even the MGC members don't wear their letters to the bar. I've only seen Delta Sigma Pi, Alpha Kappa Psi, and APO wear their letters to the bar, and they're just professional or service organizations. I know the sororities on campus would die if their members were wearing letters at the bar and there was a picture.

Like someone said earlier, if you end up doing stupid stuff, the biggest thing people will remember is "Remember that XYZ letting that 45 year old guy do body shots off her?"

[Buttonz]

In my school we would all wear our jackets out to the bar...but that's because we wore our jackets almost everywhere. It was great at the end of a nigh to have to sort through a pile of lettered jackets and usually knowing what jacket belonged to who by the pattern of the letters.

There were parties that were thrown that you would get reduced admission if you showed up in letters. So we would either wear rhinestone letters and not get trashed, or show up in a sweatshirt, get our reduced admission and then take the sweatshirt off once we got into the bar.

To me, as long as I'm not planning on getting sh**faced, I have no problem wearing letters out to a bar. Then again, very rarely do I have a night that I go out and get sh**faced without knowing that I'm planning on it beforehand.