Thursday nights have always been big “going out” nights on the SMU campus. Tonight, however, hundreds of students will gather at the Hughes Trigg flagpole to watch “Haze,” a feature documentary addressing the national outbreak of binge drinking and hazing across college campuses.
Put on by SMU’s Center for Drug and Alcohol Prevention and the Gordie Foundation, the school hopes the film will open both new and old student minds to the dangers associated with drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. But will this feature really have the desired effect?
Everyone has seen movies warning students about the dangers of drinking too much, partying too hard and falling victim to numerous hazing activities. Yet, students still wander across campus every night to bars and fraternity houses to partake in drinking games and other potentially embarassing activities. If the movies these students have seen in the past didn’t sway away their decision to throw in the towel when it comes to drinking, chances are another documentary isn’t going to make much of an impact.
If anything, students will walk away laughing and joking about the idiot who drank too much, passed out and woke up with a new Sharpie tattoo down their torso. Maybe a student or two will shed a few tears, but it will never be revealed that seeing a documentary about alcohol abuse changed their outlook on life.
Flyers advertise the slogan “are you ready to wake up?” hinting at the fact that students have been in the dark about the alcohol abuse happening not just on our campus, but at other prestigious schools as well. The student body is fully educated when it comes to where they can find alcohol. They have been alerted of the dangers of drinking, and many have even witnessed first hand the agony of a hangover, or worse. Notice many of these students are still hitting up Frat Row, Greenville and McKinney on a regular basis.
We commend the school for putting forth the effort to raise awareness of an topic that has become so rampant across the education system, but the school needs to realize that without the effort from the students themselves, nothing is going to change.
Students have to want to change for themselves. The film may spark conversations amongst students about what could happen if they continue with their party ways, but the school cannot expect students to turn from beer to juice after being subjected to yet another film about what has become a college norm.
