Why "Wet Zones" Should be an Option.

In order to form a middle ground in the argument, we are proposing that campuses provide supervised “wet zones” for ages 18 and above. These zones could possibly take the form of a campus bar or a club that is sponsored, staffed, and monitored by the college it would reside in. These areas could then allow students to buy cheap alcohol while still getting a party feel and being safe. They could even potentially be self sufficient with that exact income it produces or may also provide as a source of income for the University supporting it. These “wet zones” would however have strict rules to provide student safety.

These guidelines would include:

• Commuters must give their keys and show proof of having a designated driver.
• Cuttoff limits on how much alcohol can be bought.
• Escorts back to a student's room by a supervisor with only the people the student arrived with.

 We believe that these policies will help reduce alcohol related accidents and that having a wetzone would remove the taboo of drinking on campus, which will hopefully prevent students from going to bars or parties in order to gain access to alcohol.

How to Curb Binge Drinking at U.S. Colleges: Sell Alcohol on Campus.

Source: Shavin, Naomi. "How to Curb Binge Drinking at U.S. Colleges: Sell Alcohol on Campus." New Republic. N.p., 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Summary: This article was written in response to The New York Times’ article, “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Drinking,” due to the fact that the article missed something that could help fix the drinking problem, having a bar on campus.

The article provides several examples as to why having a bar on campus could work and how it could prevent drinking related accidents. These include DUIs and DUI-related student deaths could decrease dramatically,  drinks being less susceptible to spiking and drugging, which could reduce incidents of sexual assault on campus, keeping students closer to a hospital if medical care is needed, bartender hired by the school would be incentivized to cut off students who are too intoxicated, Student groups could hold events at campus bars rather than off campus, Schools with campus bars could monitor students’ drinking habits and create more effective alcohol education programming.

Quality: This article addresses many of the problems related to alcohol related accidents and backs up its data with reputable sources such as from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The NIAAA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources which is sponsored by the United States Government. This leads us to believe that the article's statistics are valid and reputable.

Issues: This article bases some of its reasons off of personal experiences they had at a school in London where the author states "the drinking age is 18". Therefor separating it from the US. Also the author says that they had to wait in a line to even get in the door of this off campus bar, saying "the wait to get into one of the campus bars—Guy’s Bar—was almost always over an hour." (Shavin). Many students are not going to want to wait in a line to get into the bar when they could get into a party and get a drink almost immediately.    

Key Words:

binge drinking

on-campus bar

DUI

drinking related accidents

controlled environment
incentivized

Drinking on Campus: University of Kentucky Relaxes Its Alcohol Policy

Source: Sanburn, John. "The University of Kentucky Will Allow Drinking on Campus Again." Time. Time, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Summary: This article is about how the University of Kentucky is revoking their dry policy after off campus riots. This article shows how the university discovered why the dry policy wasn’t getting rid of the alcohol problem, and instead moving the problem off campus, which has disturbed the off-campus community.“The thought was that you could monitor this, that it was a more controlled environment, so allowing more drinking on campus may be a way for universities to regain some of that control." (Usdan) says co author of the survey Stuart Usdan.

Quality: This article references a study published in the American Journal of Health Studies showing that the data they gathered was accepted by professionals in this field. It is also a newer article and study referring back to only last year. Furthermore it references the University of Kentucky's local paper, The Lexington Herald Leader, which has a further in depth coverage of the matter.

Issues: This article seems a bit vague in the reasons why the University of Kentucky lifted its ban, making it seem that the riots were the only reason. Unfortunately, this article was written just when the university decided to lift the ban so there isn't a way of knowing whether or not this decision has proven to be effective at fixing the alcohol problem.

Key Words:

Dry policy

off-campus drinking

harm-reduction policy

on-campus bar

controlled environment