Why College Students Should Support Ban on Alcohol in Colleges - Essay Example

Why College Should Support Ban on Alcohol in Colleges At the mention that colleges should ban alcohol, probably many students who are partakers in the above product may ask, “Really? Why should one support such a move?” Such a reaction is normal. It is always human nature to resist change. Therefore, various reactions to such proposals should not only be expected, but also accommodated. That is because doing away with something that has been part of the everyday life for people can only be done through proper engagement. This is the reason college students should support alcohol ban. Political science observes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Similarly, a little drinking distracts a student, and too much drinking distracts completely. Therefore, students should support alcohol ban in colleges as it is for their ultimate good. I feel that students should join hands with those pushing for alcohol ban in colleges. One thing that I recognize is that finishing high school comes with too much excitement. For those joining colleges, the prospect of joining college is even more thrilling. It is a normal thing for many people to group in peers and plan how they intend to utilize their first month in college. It should be not a surprise that the outcomes of such discussions are usually centered on the coming freedom. Let us face it. Many students would plan parties, dances, fun and doing something crazy amongst others. Get it right that there is nothing wrong with being happy in the company of friends, but as Correia et al. (39) observe, some social behaviors are detrimental to an individual. Even so, socializing process should not be used to assert freedom in the wrong way. It has been found that many young people do not make a decision to take their first bottle of alcohol. They find themselves doing so because they are in the company of their friends. In many cases, they do so to show that they are now independent. The question one should ask himself/herself is whether taking alcohol is the only way of demonstrating independence. Suppose you come across a twelve-year-old taking alcohol, what picture would you paint of such a person? He is independent, right? By no means. Therefore, if taking alcohol is not a measure of independence, do you not observe that such claims are fallacious? Consequently, it follows that taking alcohol to assert independence is completely misguided. In fact, not taking alcohol would constitute a perfect measure of managing one’s independence. That is because despite having the freedom to do as one pleases, a student who refrains from taking alcohol so that he/she may give his/her academics a fair chance is very responsible. Such a person demonstrates a perfect independent choice. That is because academic life calls upon students to practice self-denial in some social areas until they are through with their academic pursuits. College students should also understand that they should not support alcohol ban in colleges so that they can have a fair chance with their academics. It is rather obvious that when students go on a drinking spree, they take a while before they recover. Take for instance on a Monday morning. The professor is collecting assignments. At the back of the class, a few students are struggling to finish the assignment. They drank themselves mad the whole weekend and forgot their assignments. In fact, some of them were dragged into the lecture halls when they were partially drank. The students sitting right in front of them have endure alcoholic fumes such drank students exude in their breath. The learning environment becomes really a mess. The professor too can smell the ethanol-like air in the class. He asks, but the students just looks at one another without a word. Students call it protecting each other. The only thing unknown to them is that they are passively contributing to the failure of one of their own. Eventually such students will score poor in terms of their GPAs as a result of cumulative low GPAs across their college life. However, it does not have to be so. Students can rise up in the interest of brotherhood and sisterhood and save their fellow comrades from distraction. It would be a shame that some of the bright minds that enter college are lost to alcohol. Non-drinking students should help their fellow students understand that alcohol will not suddenly disappear from the world after colleges have been closed. Those things will always be there. What matters is priority and planning. Rather than see fun in the name of alcohol alone, college students should appreciate that there is also fun in other activities such as sports. While in college, drinking should never be a priority. Besides, students should support alcohol ban in colleges as an alternative solution to some of the problems associated with it. Some of the effects of alcoholism in college are strictly non-academic. As pointed out by some authors such as Porter and Pryor (463) and Pérez-Peña (1), alcoholism in college has also been responsible for morally questionable behaviors. Female students continue to expose themselves in danger of being abused sexually by drinking too much in college. I feel that such student actually need guidance and counseling. The fact that some of them are documented to wake up in men’s hostel with no clue on how they get there is worrying. Suppose such female student was your sister, friend, cousin or merely someone you know, what are the chances that she was not sexually abused? That may be difficult to ascertain, though the first though is that she actually went through such an ordeal. That is because at college, many emerging adults in their late teens and early twenties are usually sexually active. Some have just landed on the chance to be away from home where they are being monitored by their parents. Many who do not practice abstinence are usually eager to have their first sexual experience. In fact, in their drunken stupor, some may wrongly take lack of resistance from their drunken female friends for consent for sex. By the next morning, may be none of them will even remember what happened the previous day. The same ordeal may also happen to a make student. It is not all the times that men are sexually abused, but it does happen. If one understands the chain reaction that encompasses alcoholism in college students, then even those who doubt the wisdom behind proposals for a ban in colleges may see the light. The following are some of the facts one has to consider when dealing with the problem. One, the ban is not an attempt to control those who are otherwise adults. Like conditioning in which when the stimulus is withdrawn, the behavior dies with time, so it is with alcohol ban. Banning alcohol from colleges is like withdrawing a stimulus that is known to elicit certain behaviors. It may not yield results immediately, but over time, it will remedy the situation. One thing that should be understood is that every environmentally acquired behavior can be reversed. The only difference is that some may take more time than others to be exhibit behavior change. In the same manner, if college students join efforts in alcohol ban in colleges, eventually campaign will bear fruits. The most important thing is that such a process should not be a radical one. It should be a student-centered approach where students are allowed to participate and contribute to the solutions being adopted. Students should understand that such a ban on alcohol is not intended to control them or curtail their freedom. It is intended to help them manage the last phase of education that would usher in a professional life. Works Cited Correia, Christopher J., Murphy James G., and Barnett Nancy P. College Student Alcohol Abuse: A Guide to Assessment, Intervention, and Prevention. New Jersey: Wiley, 2012. Print. Porter Stephen R., and Pryor John. The Effects of Heavy Episodic Alcohol Use on Student Engagement, Academic Performance. Journal of College Student Development 48.4 (2007): 455-467. Pérez-Peña, Richard. Dartmouth in the Glare of Scrutiny on Drinking. New York Times, October 1, 2013. Web. Accessed from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/education/dartmouth- in-the-glare-of-scrutiny-on-drinking.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Read More