‘It’s not our goal to bust students’

Georgia College has clear rules for student alcohol usage, which continue to be enforced during the Fall 2011 semester. These rules are set to ensure safety for students, as well as the greater community. Both Public Safety and University Housing administer these policies.

Alcohol use at GC is not just limited based on age. Public Safety and University Housing both follow the laws and policies given to them when it comes to alcohol violations, regardless of the student’s age.

“We have to maintain safety and order as much as possible,” said Detective Michael Baker of Public Safety.

However this does not mean that the police are out to get everyone.

“It’s not like we are fishing, we aren’t going to go around checking people’s ID’s on the sidewalk. You have to be doing something to bring the attention to yourself. A lot of times, (students) don’t see the fine print that says ‘Please drink responsibly,’” said Baker.

It is usually when a student overindulges in alcohol that he or she gets into trouble.

“In Housing it’s not our goal to ‘bust students,’” said Candace Maddox, associate director for student development at University Housing. “Those students that are overly consuming alcohol, whether they are of age or not, will probably cause trouble, which is what we are addressing.”

The first Thursday of the semester is a common night for alcohol usage and partying among students.

“Each year at the beginning of the year on the first Thursday there’s always a little bit of excitement about the alcohol policy and people “getting busted” or not,” said Cindy McClanahan, University Housing marketing coordinator. “But what’s important to remember is … the media for these students coming into the college environment. They have an expectation … that college is party, party all the time and there’s a lot of alcohol, and that’s really not the case.”

The truth is that not everyone in college participates in alcohol usage; it is really just a small portion of students.

“In reality students who self-report through surveys tell us that the majority of our students are not participating in drinking alcoholic beverages prior to being 21,” McClanahan said.

Lauren Biddle, a freshman marketing major, for example, does not participate in drinking alcohol because she claims it is not what she came to GC to do.

“I’m underage and I don’t drink because that’s not my interest right now,” Biddle said.

Others, such as Joshua Gibson, junior computer science major, suspect that underage drinking is more common.

“I would think there is (underage drinking) just based on the number of people downtown. I would bet not all of them are 21,” Gibson said.

University Housing and Public Safety will continue to follow their policies throughout the semester. “Our enforcement stays consistent year round,” McClanahan said. “It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, if it’s the first day or the last day.”

University Housing’s alcohol policy can be found online at: http://www.gcsu.edu/housing/policies.htm.

For more information about Public Safety at GC, visit http://www.gcsu.edu/publicsafety/index.htm.

 

*Editor’s note: Alyson Crosby works for University Housing.

Posted by Alyson Crosby on Sep 1 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.