__Strict party restrictions generate mixed response around D.C. campus__
Georgetown University administrators recently implemented strict restrictions for on-campus parties that have brought forth various responses from the student body as a whole. The change came about after the first two weeks of the current school year resulted in more party-related complaints than ever before in the history of the institution.
p. Georgetown, which has long been known for not only its academics, but also its social life, has expressed strong concern over its ability to maintain the delicate balance between a safe campus and drinking.
p. The new rules instituted include a stronger police presence in the neighborhood, a one-keg-per-party limit and several complex registration policies. District Police Commander Andy Solberg also said that from now on, officers would be arresting students for party-related violations rather than issuing citations.
p. “We would prefer that the college kids control their own actions,” Solberg said to the Washington Post. “But if they can’t or they won’t, we’ll lock them up.”
p. Because the new rules and limitations have restricted the numbers of parties on-campus, gatherings have gradually shifted off-campus, causing students and neighbors to complain about the noise. Reportedly, when student leaders took administrators to a popular on-campus spot on a weekend when known parties were occurring, all they heard were crickets.
p. Many Georgetown students have reported that they have been blindsided by the new regulations. Where students were given freedom to party before, the new rules have completely overwhelmed them.
p. “You can’t suddenly clomp down, put all these rules in after letting people do whatever they want for so long,” Kayleigh Brown ’10 said to the Washington Post.
p. Various students expressed concern at the fact that Georgetown’s social scene could become more fragmented, sending students far and wide on weekends in order to maintain a social life. One junior started a protest movement on Facebook last weekend in the form of a group named “Work Hard-Play Hard, GU Students for Stopping the Madness,” which by last afternoon already had a number of petitions with nearly 1,900 signatures.
p. However, Georgetown University is just one of many campuses nationwide that are cracking down on alcohol use in college.
“The legal liabilities are so much on peoples’ minds now,” said Gwendolyn Dungy of National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. “We can’t do things halfway anymore.”
