[1738] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Seeking feedback on alcohol policy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Fri Feb 10 13:39:26 2006
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:36:50 -0500
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.62L.0602101254350.22969@department-of-alchemy.mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
Are people at MIT capable of discussing this sort of issue without it turning
into dorms vs. frats?
From what was discussed in the meetings, it appears that the problem primarily
comes from frosh. Many frosh have had no significant exposure to drinking
before they come to MIT. They don't know what their limits are. They don't
know how to take care of a drunk friend. Many of the instances that we were
talking about in meetings involved frosh going from living group to living
group and getting drunk, and their friends either not realizing that they
needed help or not knowing where to go for it. Going from place to place
appeared to be key, because they drank each place, more experienced people had
not been watching them all evening, and they were more likely to end up in a
relatively unfamiliar location. These incidents did not tend to involve
patterns of dangerous drinking either within FSILGs or within specifc
dorms. I
do not think that this is the fault of either a collective or an individual
responsibility mentality - I live in a dorm, and even though we don't have
membership/pledging, people still take care of each other, because they are
friends, just as people in FSILGs take care of their friends.
- Jessie
Quoting Sam Korb <skorb@MIT.EDU>:
> On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, Jeff Roberts wrote:
>
>> An interesting point, indeed ... we could argue about whether
>> "freshmen-on-campus" was really a good idea (though I'm sure most of
>> us on mit-talk would agree that it wasn't, or at least not a well
>> thought-out one), but on the subject of whether dorms are more or less
>> "safe" than fraternities, I think that's another discussion
>> altogether. In dorms, there is generally a greater emphasis on
>> independence and personal responsibility than on collective
>> responsibility, which is more strongly supported by the
>> bidding/pledging concept and "membership" nature of fraternities.
>> GRTs and Housemasters are in dorms to provide advising and support,
>> they're not there to serve as supervisors or parents.
>
> The flipside to what you term "collective responsibility" is
> consideration for others. It seems like a lot of this discussion has been
> focused on ways of convincing students in DORMS to take the time to deal
> with a drunk in the proper manner, not merely step over the inebriated
> hallmate on the way to their singles. Independence strays too easily into
> insularity. And what about when some takes the personal initiative to get
> him or herself shitfaced? Who's problem is it then?
>
> Sam Korb
> skorb@mit.edu
>
> "If you will it, it is no dream."
> Herzl
> _______________________________________________
> MIT-talk mailing list
> MIT-talk@mit.edu
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>
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