At the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., a student was suspended for the semester after getting drunk and passing out at a freshman orientation, according to an Associated Press article. In a similar but unrelated incident, another student found drinking at a CU orientation was allowed to attend the university but was reprimanded only with a “strike” on school records.
The university has attributed the strict punishment to its new policy on alcohol consumption, in which the university can suspend students on their first or second violation, not just their third.
This policy is unfair to CU students in that leniency may be exercised for some while others receive severe punishments. It is only fair to the students to implement an all-encompassing policy and then enforce it accordingly.
The suspension is also very contradictory to the underlying social culture at the University of Colorado. It has been reported in the past year that the university football coach, Gary Barnett, knew of and even encouraged alcohol consumption and prostitute solicitation at recruitment visitations. He also publicly belittled his former female kicker after she quit the team and accused her former teammates of sexual harassment. Yet all of this has been overlooked, and he remains an employee of the university.
Couple this disturbing information with the news that last fall the Princeton Review named the University of Colorado the nation’s top party school, and it is quite obvious the university’s problems run much deeper than a couple of drunk students at orientation.
The university needs to assess the actions of Barnett, one of its most prominent employees, before it starts cracking down on its students. Furthermore, if the university really wants to reverse their social trend, more preventative actions need to be taken at the root of the problem instead of scratching the surface by doling out suspensions.
As far as the drunk students at orientation go, give them a strike on their records. They will suffer a consequence of their own the next morning when they wake up.
