In the early ’60s, Yale University Chaplain William Sloane Coffin spoke at Perkins Chapel. He challenged the SMU community, particularly members of fraternities, to abandon attitudes of exclusivism, racism and sexism in their lives and chapters. At the end of his talk, Coffin invited students who found truth in his remarks to place their pledge and active pins on the Perkins Chapel altar as symbols of their seriousness and sacrifice. A few chuckled, but some moved forward. These were SMU students from five decades ago.
Every community bears the consequences of its internal contradictions. We live today with the impacts of decisions and actions made and taken long in the distant past. It isn’t too late to address them today.
Last year we lost at least three precious members of our student community to alcohol and chemical abuse. We know of one other whose near-death took him from us as well. No one can accurately assess how many students have left across the years because they found it difficult to study and learn in environments dominated by alcohol, chemicals and their impacts. A truly unfortunate point is that SMU is hardly alone in wrestling these realities.
The ingestion of destructive chemicals and pandemic alcohol abuse (alcohol violations up significantly from this period of semester opening last year here on our campus), are recurring phenomena. In 1985, Kappa Alpha Order at SMU began spring initiation rites with then-traditional gifts to each little brother: a full fifth of bourbon to be quaffed in short order. Three new “brothers” nearly met their deaths that night – but for the thoughtfulness of another newly activated member. Brother James had but weeks before successfully completing his probation for a DWI conviction involving another SMU student’s death on homecoming night two years before. Had James not called 911 and arranged emergency room transport, three KA’s would likely have succumbed to alcohol poisoning, been memorialized in Perkins Chapel and held dear – albeit in memory – by grieving friends and family. Kappa Alpha Order owes more today to KA brother James (now a family physician in Georgia) than current members or SMU parents may realize. That intervention saved lives.
Out of this near tragedy and the judicial sanctions imposed came Kappa Alpha Order’s invitation to the SMU community: join the brotherhood each year on Family Weekend for “Milk and Cookies,” a nervous but sincere expression of gratitude that tragedy had been averted. The gift of “Milk and Cookies” 22 years ago may hold promises of hope for our community’s current response to continuing tragedies of self-abuse and loss of human dignity and life.
With the appointment of SMU’s Presidential Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention, President Turner has created structured opportunities for focused examinations of our own campus culture. The arrival and commission of Anthony Tillman and the appointment of Meghan Knapp as health educator in John Sanger’s office signal other positive responses to and a willingness to address some of these concerns. As this new academic year develops, whether those opportunities lead to a healthier community depends both the quality of information the task force receives and the implementation of recommendations emerging from its labors.
As we begin this fall, let us talk about the impacts of alcohol and chemicals on our lives here at SMU. Let us recognize that alcohol and chemical abuse affects us all – profoundly. Let’s consider how chemicals dull and derail the intellectual aspirations of our entire community. Let’s talk openly about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the academy, in this university. Let’s talk about the social impacts of abandoning Friday classes in some areas of the university and why Monday classes have the reputation of often being rump assemblies.
Let’s talk about sanitation along Binkley and Dublin after SMU students exit buses Thursday-Saturday nights, and let us identify clearly those who contract the buses. Let’s talk again about SMU’s alcohol use policies and resurrect serious discussions about an on-campus pub. Let’s talk about “enabling” agents and about how institutions of renowned intellectual capital might choose to fashion themselves into “recovery-friendly” environments. Let’s affirm students, faculty and staff who have demonstrated the courage and commitment to healthy living by availing themselves of treatment for alcohol and chemical addictions at Betty Ford, Hazelden, La Hacienda or other such resources for sanity and sobriety.
Let’s listen carefully to members of our faculty who, to be sure, have perspectives to share on such issues as Friday and Monday scheduling, classroom decorum, pleas for rush-related grade inflation and the challenges of increased academic rigor. Let’s keep focused, however, on the neuro-biochemistry constantly at work on our campus. After all, over-consumption first impairs the central nervous system and the brain – that center of intelligence which the entire institution of higher education has historically sought to enhance, nurture, and develop. Is there irony here somewhere?
Perhaps we need another “altar call,” one similar to Bill Coffin’s invitation four decades ago – one not only for students but for all who bear responsibility for our community’s life. I, for one, am cautiously hopeful. I believe we still have some time to reassess our community and to examine ourselves in light not only of our aspirations, but also the tough realities which have potential to frustrate them. This is an important moment for us all.
About the writer:
William M. Finnin, Jr. Th. D.
Chaplain and Minister to the University
