Why I Promote Green Beer Day...
One reason I promote Green Beer Day every year is to protest the University's alcohol policy. It all started when I was a freshman living in 2 Deep South, Stanton Hall a few years ago. It was a Friday night and I recall having nothing to do. Being a freshman guy without a beer hookup or a fake ID I was not exactly highly desired at any party at the fraternity houses or off-campus. I remember looking out the window in our dorm room and seeing 2 University police officers talking to a girl, dressed as if ready to party, sitting on the grass, crying. The police were yelling at her and looking through her backpack. After a few minutes of verbal abuse and some discussion between the officers I watched the girl pour out 5 bottles of beer individually into the gutter. The officers then handcuffed her and took the last unopened bottle of beer as evidence and put her in the back of the police car.
Her crime? Carrying a backpack on a college campus at night? Having beer in that backpack? Where is the probable cause? 2 crimes were committed that night and I witnessed both of them...underage possession of alcohol by a student and illegal search and seizure by 2 police officers. Which one do you think was punished?
When the University announced that parental notification would become part of the already ridiculous alcohol violation policy that was the next thing to ruffle my Redhawk feathers. I was already 21 and thought my days of worrying about another alcohol violation on my record was behind me. I was legal. Why is it that parents should be notified if their son or daughter is caught consuming alcohol while away at college? What if the parents do not pay for the student's tuition? This is the case of a roommate of mine? When he was arrested at a popular Uptown bar one night for buying a drink for a girl down the bar - he was arrested for furnishing alcohol to a minor even though she used a fake ID to gain entrance to the bar and her hands were stamped as being 21. How he was arrested for this is beyond understanding and why his parents received a letter notifying them of their son's actions and required attendance at an alcohol education course is even more unbelievable. That the University is in league with the Oxford police department to share confidential legal information in even worse.
I have taken the alcohol education course. I have been to court to sit in front of Judge Oney. I Promote Green Beer Day because the University hates it. And I will stop the minute that they reverse their policies on treating students like children and stop being their Mother. The University's place is in the classroom, the lecture hall, the lab...not the bar or the living room or your dorm room. Remember that. I promote Green Beer Day for you.
