Fling discussion needs honesty

Depending on who you ask, it was either a Supreme Court small souvenir flower vase or a really big shot glass. The debate started in the gift shop and continued for the rest of second semester freshman year. Whatever the manufacturer's intended use, it got filled up with vodka for the first time during Spring Fling, and a couple guys took the equivalent of four shots at once.

While most of them were just trying to hold it in, another declared that anything worth doing was worth doing twice, and challenged the rest of the gang to do the same. All of this took place in less than 30 minutes. Using logic that makes sense only to someone who has pledged a fraternity, they then founded a brotherhood complete with unprintable statutes -- due to both their vulgarity and secrecy.

When I heard about it the next morning, I was shocked that they weren't in the hospital or dead, or both. Because they all woke up the next morning, it's a story my friends and I can tell. We still laugh about those crazy guys from the Quad.

Over the years though, we've become more aware of how dangerous that incident really was. When asked to tell the story recently, one of the guys explained it as the stupidest thing he'd ever done.

Although this might not be representative of all the drinking that occurs during Fling, such behavior is far more prevalent than administrators would like to realize. And it only takes one incident to go horribly wrong for the entire tradition to be threatened.

After the University Council meeting last week, there's been a student-body mantra that Fling should not be changed. OK, but to do all that we have to start discussing alcohol use at the event honestly. It's disingenuous to sit around and pretend that it doesn't happen or that it doesn't happen in excess. I mean, really, if President Gutmann ever had to make a final decision, who do you think she's going to believe, students professing angelic behavior or the hospitalization numbers?

With that in mind, we need to realize that helping the University develop a better alcohol policy during Fling is not the same as helping the University take Fling away. In fact, such efforts will actually help to protect Fling.

Everyone knows that the current policy of not allowing "beverages or underage possession and/or consumption [of alcohol] during the event" is a joke. Most students take the bag checks as a challenge -- it only adds to the sense of adventure. The booze still gets passed through the fence, air vents and service entrances or even goes through the gates several months early. Freshmen are likely stockpiling Jose Cuervo and Smirnoff Ice at this very moment.

Considering all this, it's not surprising that our staff in the Quad is overwhelmed each year. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has attended a Fling or two can say otherwise.

For the most part, RAs and GAs don't want to police other college students -- if they do, then they're in the wrong line of work -- and that's something to continue if we increase the personnel on hand. They should be there to increase safety, not dole out punishment. The number of drinking citations and alcohol confiscations are always just the tip of the iceberg.

Fling Safe is a start. We definitely need more people around in the early morning hours when the lightweights like me are busy sleeping-off the previous day and others are up and mistaking vases for shot glasses.

I don't know if it would work to turn Fling into a registered party or at least get alcohol monitors or perhaps even moving a few events out of the Quad like they did in previous decades.

Maybe my ideas are all bad ones, but we need to start discussing this issue until somebody comes with some good ones. Our Fling is depending on it.

Amara Rockar is a junior political science major from St. Louis. Out of Range appears on Tuesdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.