ABC - Easy as B-A-D
Today, the UC Berkeley administration announced its receipt of a $40,000 Alcoholic Beverage Control enforcement grant. The Daily Cal also has coverage of UCPD’s intended use for the funds:
A state alcohol agency that traditionally only funds city law enforcement has awarded UC Berkeley police a grant to combat underage drinking for the first time in campus history, while also handing Berkeley city police funds for the fourth consecutive year.
With the $40,000 grant, the UC Berkeley police department becomes the first university police force to receive a grant from the State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s grant assistance program.
“We understand our responsibility being the first ones to get it,” said UC police Lt. Doug Wing…
Wing said the new funding will go toward a number of uses, including minor decoy operations, inspections of facilities licensed to serve or sell alcohol, and presentations to help alcohol servers identify fake identification cards and otherwise comply with state laws.
The ABC Grant, and Berkeley alcohol policies in general, have been a target of CalStuff criticism for years now. But this recent development goes beyond problematic - it has the potential to completely undermine the health of the campus environment in many different arenas. Administrators should immediately consider declining the state grant.
Let’s analyze the five key problems with the ABC grant to the University:
1) This grant officially shifts the role of the university from an educator to an enforcer. For years, the state has given the UC system money for educational programs regarding safe partying, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Now, however, the university has become an official enforcer of state law rather than an institution dedicated to serving and educating students. Arresting students for violations through sting operations ruins future careers, breeds further resentment against the university, and distracts from the more dire needs that exist on our campus.
2) Berkeley PD’s usage of the ABC grant signals the continued violation of student rights. The City of Berkeley has used the ABC grant to unfairly target college students. The city grant has, from the beginning, been intended to address permanent residents in Berkeley. This demographic does not include most college students, who keep their main residency in their hometowns until getting established. But, it does include Berkeley High students and local residents. Does anyone want to guess who the city goes after to hit its arrest quotas? I’ll give you a hint: the area between Shattuck and Piedmont is the site of a considerably high number of ABC-related citations.
3) This shift in university policy greatly threatens Greek-University relations. One of the major sticking points between the Greek community and the university is enforcement issues. With UCPD working actively to fight alcohol violations, the most recent agreements between Greeks and administrators is doomed to failure with the next two to three years.
4) The ABC grants have been ineffective in Berkeley, and continue to backfire. No evidence has been provided that the ABC grants have done anything to make students safer. Besides arrest totals, the only numbers being provided to the public are increased noise complaints in less centralized residencies. Parties are moving from lightly-regulated fraternities and co-ops to unregulated houses and apartments, putting more students in danger. And, the positions that the UCPD is attempting to take on in this grant are not in its typical workload - what experience do its officers have running decoy sting operations?
5) The grants are a waste of state funding. - The Cal Patriot addresses this in depth, but just do the math: $40,000 to university + $84,000 to city = $124,000 to fight Berkeley drinking = 12,400 pitchers at the Bear’s Lair or = 21 ambulance rides for intoxicated students = or hundreds of hours of organized non-alcoholic entertainment, for example.
If the university is truly interested in doing the right thing for all parties, it would sacrifice its PR bump for realistic solutions to a larger cultural problem. Instead, it is prepared to endanger the student-university relationship forever in order to get a $40,000 kickback and some weak press coverage.
Underage college students do not have a ‘right’ to drink alcohol. I know, being a frat boy, it might seem otherwise… but, honest to god, it’s true. In fact, (perish the thought) it’s even a crime.
If you wanted to be an alcoholic during college, maybe you should have gone to a party school? SOMEONE is blowing $25k a year on your education, maybe you should value it a bit more?
Comment by Spanky McCrackers — August 15, 2006 @ 7:49 am
I’m sick of these frat people whining about how oppressed they are despite being known to give beer to under 21s. We all know the grant is a waste of money, and that’s the core issue here. Since Berkeley does not do enough to align itself with the other problems it faces as a city, frats unfortunately take more blame than necessary. But enough of the sob story. Focus on the root of the problem and not some joke (item #1) about whose careers get ruined.
Comment by jigs — August 15, 2006 @ 9:06 am
You all are missing the point. Everyone knows that drinking when you’re under 21 is illegal. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called UNDERAGE drinking. It is part of any college experience (with a few exceptions) to go to at least a party or two, even when one is underage and even when one is not at a “party school.” Forcing the problem underground does not eliminate the problem. In fact, this will only create a greater problem. Believe it or not, most fraternities are somewhat controlled. I hear of more hospitalizations from people drinking in the dorms than I do from people drinking at fraternities. I don’t know for sure if this is the case, but this is what I have observed. Think about the implications of such a shift from fraternity parties to house/apartment/dorm parties.
Comment by Glicky — August 15, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
That’s funny. My house doesn’t care what stupid laws they University passes. Only retard houses get caught having parties. It’s called knowing how to plan a party. So survival of the fittest. Our house had its boom year with the Alcohol Moratorium.
Comment by Anonymous — August 15, 2006 @ 1:59 pm
“Only retard houses get caught.”
Good thing you’re not a raging stereotype, fratboy.
Comment by Anonymous — August 16, 2006 @ 9:28 am
Good for fratboy. But I hope he knows he’s risking a ruined career! The more Greeks speak out on stuff like this, the more credibility they lose.
Comment by Anonymous — August 16, 2006 @ 2:14 pm