“We think this policy is the best way to put our best foot forward to the Miami community, to the Oxford community and to the whole nation really.”
With those words earlier this week, Drew Sturtevant, president of the Interfraternity Council at Miami University, announced new rules for Greek fraternities and sororities in Oxford that are intended to prevent the kind of outrageous, destructive student behavior that brought national attention and shame to Miami earlier this year.
This spring, two sororities were suspended after their spring formals turned into uncontrolled affairs that included excessive drinking, costly vandalism and property damage, indecent public acts, and vomiting and urinating on facilities at Lake Lyndsay Lodge in Butler County and at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Another Greek organization was placed on probation for harassing a bus driver during an out-of-town event.
Miami President David Hodge called the behavior “disruptive, disrespectful and destructive,” and said he was “appalled and embarrassed.” The acts “are contrary to the values of Miami University, and contradictory to what is expected of responsible members of society,” he said last May. Those were his strong public remarks; his private comments to colleagues were likely even more intense and colorful.
This week’s announcement of new rules, agreed upon by 97 percent of Greek organization presidents on Aug. 22, were a response to the university’s pledge to take action after the disgraceful events came to light and drew close scrutiny to Oxford’s obvious student drinking problem.
Among the new rules:
• Groups must hire two security guards for the first 200 people attending an off-campus event and one guard for each additional 100 people.
• Each event will have student “sober monitors.”
• Sororities and fraternities must also have an even number of events without alcohol as social events with alcohol.
These appear to be a good starting point for ensuring that events like those at Lake Lyndsay and the Cincinnati museum do not get of control again, but the strongest measure — adding security guards — seems to be an acknowledgment that bad behavior is to be expected. Security guards might have been able to prevent some property damage and to summon police to last spring’s events, but what happens until police arrive? No one wants to see headlines about drunken Miami students being tased or security guards being assaulted.
As we’ve noted here before, Miami and other universities around the nation must continue efforts to combat the scourge of dangerous binge drinking on and off campuses. About two of every five college students of all ages — more than 40 percent — have reported engaging in binge drinking at least once in the previous two weeks, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The problem is epidemic.
Moreover, it’s ignominious that college students — young adults who are supposed to be our best and brightest — have to be treated as children and handed a set of rules to control how they behave in public. We commend the work of the task force that devised the rules and won consensus, and hope that more measures will be put in place. But it’s unfortunate that this task was ever necessary.
Journal News