Future alcoholics, or college students? SCU day parties

By Anna Woelfel

This weekend went by much too quickly. And no, it was not because I had copious amounts of work. It is only week two; no one has copious amounts of work. And it was not because I spent the day in San Francisco or Santa Cruz. It wasn't even because I was catching up on sleep. No. It was because I was partying. I woke up early Saturday morning, did my hair and makeup, put on my cut-offs and tank, and went to Bellomy.

For those who weren't at the Bellomy day party on Saturday, it was fun. A lot of fun. But as I walked away from the party in a daze many hours later, I realized it was already six-thirty. I had spent my entire day at a party. I could have accomplished a lot but instead I wasted the entire day.  In addition, my night was gone because I was so exhausted from my day's exploits.  

While I lay in my bed a couple hours later, I started thinking about my to-do list. There were errands to run and homework to finish, but none of it had been accomplished.

Days like these are not once-a-year occurrences at Santa Clara. Every sunny day, regardless of which day of the week it might be, there is a group of students playing drinking games on the lawn of some house. Just take a stroll down Bellomy and you will see huge numbers of students, usually shirtless, out playing beer die and beer pong for hours on end.  

I might even be on my way to class when a ping-pong ball hits my foot and I have to hand it back to some guy in sunglasses and board shorts.

In one particularly memorable instance I was walking down Bellomy during dead week and there were the usual 15 or so guys outside of one of the houses.  A car drove by and proceeded to yell out the window at the boys, "HELLO Santa Clara business majors!"  The boys acted offended for about two seconds and then went back to their all-consuming drinking games.  

I always ask myself, when do these people have class? When do they do their homework? There are so many people who day drink almost every day. That means that a majority of the days in the week are wasted because the students are wasted. Is it just college that makes this acceptable or popular? Or is this trend specific to Santa Clara?

In the real world if someone was drunk before 5 p.m. for most of the week, they would be considered an alcoholic.  

Their family and friends might hold an intervention for them, and they would be encouraged by professionals and nonprofessionals alike to seek help in rehab or Alcoholics Anonymous or some sort of medical program.  In college, however, this behavior is completely acceptable.  

I am not doling out judgment on any people that spend their days drinking; obviously if they are still at Santa Clara, they are somehow getting their work done and maintaining their grades and whatnot.  If they can do that and still party as they do then I might just have to say, "more power to them."

But I am suggesting that we think about the larger context of our drinking habits.  We are choosing to spend our time wasted or buzzed rather than being productive.  Perhaps instead of spending five days a week drinking, we could make it four and on that other day do something like homework or SCCAP or really anything else other than obliterating our livers.  It's just a suggestion but I think it could do a whole lot of good.

Anna Woelfel is a sophomore communication major.  Brooke Boniface contributed to this opinion piece.