The Bowdoin Orient

February 16, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 16

Houses cater to Bowdoin boozers

   During this week's discussion forum, students tried to develop ideas for improving the College House System. While such efforts are commendable, it is unlikely that the House System will improve unless action is taken regarding the place of alcohol in Bowdoin's social structure.
   While hard alcohol and "drinking games" are not allowed on campus, each weekend, the College-funded Houses host parties which provide kegs of beer to students. Yet the vast majority of party attendees are First-years and sophomores who are not of legal drinking age.
   House parties are heavily marketed towards under-class students since they have limited alternatives for drinking-few of them are 21 and are thus excluded from Brunswick's hopping bar scene and find it difficult to otherwise procure alcohol.
   The upper-class students who have viable entertainment alternatives often choose activities other than the College House parties. Perhaps the most obvious reason for this phenomenon is that House parties offer those over the age of 21 a poor value; the parties offer free, albeit low-quality beer, and little else. Why should anyone attend an event that begins at 10:00 p.m. and ends at midnight when they could instead spend an entire evening with friends?
   In addition to this flaw, many upper-class students feel daunted by the House System since so few of their classmates attend these parties. The only solution to this problem is to make social events more palatable to those over 21, rather than host parties that are essentially meat markets centered on a finite quantity of cheap keg beer.
   While changes to the House System will not be easy, they are necessary to provide, as stated in the Student Handbook's section on drugs and alcohol, "an environment in which students can further their own intellectual, social, moral, and physical development and in which all members of the campus community can work together in pursuit of knowledge and understanding."
   We wish the leaders of the House System luck in this quest, both for the selfish reason of improving social life now, and for the more grandiose goal of improving the inter-class dialogue and creating a more unified and vibrant Bowdoin.