Opinion

Who runs this show, anyhow?

In Tuesday’s editorial, we offered several suggestions to the Policy, Alternatives, Community and Education Coalition (PACE) in the hope that the group might advocate reasonable, effective policies to curb high-risk drinking. To that end, we urged them to discontinue their paternalistic efforts and adopt practical solutions reasonable students can accept. Today, we ask the true decision-makers to think for themselves, consider the alternatives we present and, most of all, take PACE’s current proposals with a grain of salt.

There are three decision-makers in this city when it comes to alcohol regulation: Bascom Hall, Madison City Hall and the Madison Police Department. At PACE’s quarterly meeting last week, the average student might have been a little confused on this point. The Dean of Students, tavern owners like Marsh Shapiro and representatives from the MPD all listened intently to PACE’s agenda, only serving to verify the credibility of that very agenda. Why, you may ask? Tavern owners fear the potentially devastating sway PACE has with the city. They have a right to be afraid. If it weren’t for PACE’s campaign against weekend drink specials last year, the “voluntary” ban would never have existed.

Students should also fear PACE’s sway with the administration. Bascom, to date, has not constructed a comprehensive policy for how it deals with drinking on this campus. We fear that in this vacuum, Bascom will lend an ear to PACE, and we will all suffer. Last week’s meeting certainly lent credence to this concern.

We ask the administration to consider the interests of students. Do not believe that their programs will truly serve our best interests. Students have practical suggestions, like expanding gym hours, and they deserve consideration.

PACE, by contrast, has presented a series of suggestions that do not deserve the kind of attention the administration and the city give are giving them. Efforts to notify parents of when students get drinking tickets is not effective — it is nonsensical invasion of privacy. Yet there has been no public statement from the administration denouncing it. Banning drink specials at the safest places to drink — bars — is entirely counter-productive. However, the administration continues to support this plan. Threats of police intervention in house parties will do nothing without realistic guidelines students can actually apply. But the Dean of Students supported this plan a press conference with the MPD and PACE, which effectively made these vague threats.

The leaders of this community at Bascom and City Halls must ask themselves if these are the kinds of policies that encourage responsibility among their nation’s future leaders and respond accordingly.

The administration, City Hall and the MPD should not follow; they should lead. It is their job. Alcohol regulation is not the Gospel according to PACE.