When the Coalition Assessment Project’s assessment of the Greek community on campus was first released earlier this year, it provided both a sobering look of Greek life at the College and several useful suggestions to help rectify the more glaring flaws of that environment. While the College has taken some much-needed steps toward improving its relationship with Greek organizations, such as opening areas in the Ludwell Apartments to fraternity housing, it is disappointing to see one of the more inane recommendations included in the CAP report, a ban on beer pong tables, quickly becoming a priority.
Drinking games are certainly nothing to be defended. They surrender something that should remain a personal decision — the amount one chooses to drink — up to the arbitrary rules of a game. However, we refuse to support an ineffective and unproductive policy regarding campus drinking. Beer pong is an inherent aspect of the Greek community — and will remain so regardless of this policy. Instead, this policy forces beer pong and other drinking games to be played under the table, so to speak; and encouraging clandestine activity is not a way to make the Greek environment safer.
This focus on beer pong tables proves more frustrating than already used when one realizes the array of options, recommended by the CAP report, that the College has still yet to pursue. For example, the CAP report recommended that the College establish a sanctioned location where sororities and fraternities could hold events, and where a third-party vendor could serve alcohol to age-verified students. Removing pong tables may have been one of the easiest aspects of the CAP report to instate, but it was also easily the least effective.
The goal of College administrators should not be to impede Greek organizations — a thriving Greek life is an attractive aspect for many potential freshmen, and as such, is something to be supported. The College’s job is to ensure the safest environment possible for its students. With that goal, a mere policy change, especially one so frivolous and inherently unenforceable, will do little. Here’s hoping the College rallies on its next shot.