Dry campus: Only for students?

While sitting with one of my friends at the Southern Miss home game last Saturday, we noticed several students receiving tickets for having alcoholic beverages on campus.

My friend, who has been a student at USM for years, looked at me and asked, “Why are they getting in trouble?”

I responded, “This is a dry campus.”

She looked at me and replied, “This is a dry campus?”

She got me thinking that many students may not know about USM’s alcohol policy. Let me refresh your memory.

“The University of Southern Mississippi prohibits the unlawful possession, consumption and distribution of alcoholic beverages by students and employees on its campus,” according to the university’s official Drug and Alcohol Policy.

Isn’t it interesting that students and employees are specifically targeted? I noticed that a lot of people were drinking, but only students were getting in trouble for it.

This is hypocritical. Aren’t the older people the ones usually being obnoxious? We have all seen that mom who is just trying to be younger affected with alcohol or the 50-something year old bald man hitting on a 22-year-old.

If it’s going to be a law, make it consistent and applicable to everyone. I could say, “It’s not fair,” that I have waited 21 years to have this right, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s the fact that we pay a ridiculous amount of money to attend the university and are told we can’t use our phones or computers in class, that we need to attend class or we’ll get a dropped letter grade, and that we aren’t allowed to have a couple of beers at a football game. Game attendance will deteriorate if campus drinks this up.

I understand that we have to have rules in order to maintain order, but does everything we do have to be controlled? I understand that underage drinking is wrong, and I do not encourage it whatsoever. As an adult of legal drinking age, I have to say that we would like to have the decision on what we drink or not.

This is our university wanting to maintain a firm hand over its students and employees, but telling an everyday citizen that they can do whatever they wish, even though we’re the ones who pay to go here, and then we can’t even park within walking distance of the District because we have to save it for ‘the paying people,’ is wrong.

Let us celebrate football how it’s supposed to be celebrated. Let us drink.