Source: Bulletin
Tony DiTommaso has lived a great 20 years. The only reason he has had the privilege of experiencing the world for such a wonderful period is that fateful night when his parents met at a kegger in the basement of DeSmet. Yes, DeSmet used to have ragers that would make last year's 221 Sharp house jealous. Yet, we were written up in that very same dorm for responsibly consuming alcoholic beverages under the legal age limit.
John Gats has lived a wonderful 21 years. The only reason he has been a member of humanity for that time is because his parents fostered their relationship through the GU-sponsored parties that his dad bartended in the basements of Madonna and C/M. Today those dorms accumulate enough write-ups each weekend to destroy half of the Amazon rainforest.
Gonzaga used to be awesome. We've got some work to do. While we don't publicly support underage drinking, I definitely support the administration loosening their choke hold on our weekend nights. The two years we spent in DeSmet were fantastic and we will never forget them, but sneaking around hiding beer on weekend nights wasn't one of our fonder memories.
What purpose does the University's drinking policy serve? It doesn't keep us safe. It doesn't keep us from drinking. It does keep us from drinking safely in a familiar place. Anybody who has lived on campus knows drinking happens, and it happens a lot. The administration loves nothing more than to dish out ethos violations like their lives depend on it, but what are they accomplishing? On-campus students are forced to roam the war zone that is the Logan Neighborhood in order to find somewhere they can get their hammer on only to run from the Gonzaga-sponsored police. Has anybody felt safe in the Logan Neighborhood? Ever? Walking around the Logan Neighborhood at night is about as safe as dousing yourself in gasoline and lighting a cigarette. It's hard enough to make it across Hamilton sober, but doing it drunk is like trying to pole vault over the Spokane River with a broken leg, and if even you manage to avoid all the speeding cars, you still have to watch out for stray bullets.
Gonzaga University might be the only school in the country where Thursday nights are the best night to party. Due to Student Life's new interest in breaking up house parties and seeking out underclassmen in the dorms, students have been forced to find other options on nights that aren't normally considered the weekend. For the privileged students who are legally allowed to drink, Star Bar Thursdays have become the new Friday and are most likely on the agenda. The Star Restaurant and Lounge is known for its terrible Karaoke singers, its cheap drinks, its not so classy atmosphere, and of course the Gonzaga crowd that arrives at approximately 11:30 every Thursday.
This is a sorry state of affairs. Students at other educational institutions like WSU and UW don't have to resort to going to a sketchy bar just to have a good time one night per week. Gonzaga students are suffering. Our pursuit of happiness has been diverted by the same people who used to get their party on in the basements of the dorms with all of our parents. This is an unjust system, and one that the administration should seriously consider revising so that it more closely resembles the policies back to the glory days of yore. See you in DeSmet this weekend.