Alcohol sale on campus?

At first glance, it seems like a terrible idea.

Should colleges encourage drinking? Probably not.

But the truth is, drinking happens whether there are rules in place or not. The solution: Make it safe.

Everyone who’s taken a road trip may have seen one of the promotional billboards warning against the dangers of DUI’s. Slogans like “Don’t Drink and Drive” or “drive high? DUI” are posted all over main roads.

But the modern problem is this–If you can’t drink where you are, the answer is to find somewhere you can. And for many college students, that’s somewhere down the highway. And they still have to return to campus at the end. The danger should be obvious. If you have to travel in order to drink, you have to have a way to get back. And sometimes, that can pose a danger.

So if we want to make it safe, the solution is to eliminate the driving. Because drinking is legal, but driving and drinking isn’t, and moreover, it’s far from safe. Offering legal alcohol sales on a college campus might offend some people, yes. But is that the price we must pay for lives saved?

College can be busy, tiring, and stressful, and many students enjoy weekend drinks with friends as a way to relax and take a break from the schoolwork. While the college’s job is to enforce rules and regulate consumption, it can also respect the students and trust them enough to use alcohol responsibly.

Parents don’t forbid their children from riding bikes, they equip them with helmets to keep them safe.

Because college students are going to drink, rules should be changed. Colleges can to their part to both protect and respect their students by selling alcohol on campus.

Please see the dissenting opinion by clicking here.