As has been well documented, the administration's recent crackdown on drinking has caused quite the stir. Rather than accepting the fact that college aged students are going to drink (just like they have for the past 150 years at this University and every other college in the world), the University is trying to "ban" it and therefore push it off campus so that it's not their problem.
This is both an ignorant and irresponsible way to deal with this matter. Students (especially 21+ year olds) are going to drink no matter what UT says. However, if they can't do it where they live, work, study, etc, they're just going to do it somewhere else. Where does "somewhere else" mean? It means across the river, in the Old City, in the depths of Fort Sanders,etc.
By pushing it off to these places, drinking becomes much more dangerous. Now you have more drunk driving, more students ending up lost in places they don't know, more robberies, muggings, shootings,and so on. But UT doesn't care about the safety of its students. It cares about not having to deal with any of the problems that come with drinking.
Instead of being realistic and accepting the fact that college students are going to drink (once again, especially 21+ year olds) and trying to do their best to control that drinking and provide a safe environment for them to do so (while informing students from early on about how to drink responsibly), UT simply bans it and pretends it's not their problem.
Because of this, UT is starting to lose a lot of potential students (many that are in-state) to other SEC schools (UGA, Alabama, Ole Miss, UF, Auburn, etc). These schools take the realistic, responsible approach to drinking. For example, if a fraternity wants to have a party at their house, they have to inform the University that they are doing so. Then, either the fraternity or the school provides private security to monitor the drinking at the party. These officers ID the students, making sure people have wristbands that are drinking.
A friend of mine (21) was recently caught drinking beer with a buddy of his in the fraternity house as they played pool and watched a basketball game. The guy was arrested for "providing alcohol to a minor" (the other guy was 20) even though he didn't even buy it for him. UT has a vendetta against drinking and is going to use every power they possess to banish it from the land. If this continues then every, single tailgate in Circle Park needs to be checked for alcohol on gamedays this fall, as well as all of the Administration and donors that are allowed to bring booze into their boxes the Friday before games. The double standard employed by the Administration and alumni base is laughable. As long as the alumni can get away with drinking on Saturdays, they couldn't care less.....and Cheek knows this.
I have a little brother considering Alabama, Ole Miss, and UT for college. Most of his buddies from Nashville aren't even considering UT but for the past year and a half I have been selling him hard on what a great school UT is. He grew up a fan so it hasn't been that hard but UT is no longer a "cool" destination so it took some convincing. However, with the recent turn of events, as much as it hurts me to say, I am about to tell him UT should no longer even be an option.
Below is the link and in the first reply I'm copying and pasting the email sent out last week that has been floating around in case you haven't seen it.
https://www.change.org/p/university-of-knoxville-make-knoxville-a-wet-campus-2?recruiter=231112971&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-custom_msg&fb_ref=Default
This is both an ignorant and irresponsible way to deal with this matter. Students (especially 21+ year olds) are going to drink no matter what UT says. However, if they can't do it where they live, work, study, etc, they're just going to do it somewhere else. Where does "somewhere else" mean? It means across the river, in the Old City, in the depths of Fort Sanders,etc.
By pushing it off to these places, drinking becomes much more dangerous. Now you have more drunk driving, more students ending up lost in places they don't know, more robberies, muggings, shootings,and so on. But UT doesn't care about the safety of its students. It cares about not having to deal with any of the problems that come with drinking.
Instead of being realistic and accepting the fact that college students are going to drink (once again, especially 21+ year olds) and trying to do their best to control that drinking and provide a safe environment for them to do so (while informing students from early on about how to drink responsibly), UT simply bans it and pretends it's not their problem.
Because of this, UT is starting to lose a lot of potential students (many that are in-state) to other SEC schools (UGA, Alabama, Ole Miss, UF, Auburn, etc). These schools take the realistic, responsible approach to drinking. For example, if a fraternity wants to have a party at their house, they have to inform the University that they are doing so. Then, either the fraternity or the school provides private security to monitor the drinking at the party. These officers ID the students, making sure people have wristbands that are drinking.
A friend of mine (21) was recently caught drinking beer with a buddy of his in the fraternity house as they played pool and watched a basketball game. The guy was arrested for "providing alcohol to a minor" (the other guy was 20) even though he didn't even buy it for him. UT has a vendetta against drinking and is going to use every power they possess to banish it from the land. If this continues then every, single tailgate in Circle Park needs to be checked for alcohol on gamedays this fall, as well as all of the Administration and donors that are allowed to bring booze into their boxes the Friday before games. The double standard employed by the Administration and alumni base is laughable. As long as the alumni can get away with drinking on Saturdays, they couldn't care less.....and Cheek knows this.
I have a little brother considering Alabama, Ole Miss, and UT for college. Most of his buddies from Nashville aren't even considering UT but for the past year and a half I have been selling him hard on what a great school UT is. He grew up a fan so it hasn't been that hard but UT is no longer a "cool" destination so it took some convincing. However, with the recent turn of events, as much as it hurts me to say, I am about to tell him UT should no longer even be an option.
Below is the link and in the first reply I'm copying and pasting the email sent out last week that has been floating around in case you haven't seen it.
https://www.change.org/p/university-of-knoxville-make-knoxville-a-wet-campus-2?recruiter=231112971&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-custom_msg&fb_ref=Default
