Alcoholism on the Heights

This article is not an exhaustive report either on the rampant drinking culture of BC in general or of any specific recent incidents, but rather a foundation for future investigations I will be undertaking.

The inspiration came from rumors of this past Friday’s football game against Louisville, and condemnations of student conduct not only from other students, but faculty and Jesuits, some placed very high indeed in administration.

One notable incident was one in which a student received a head injury and bled heavily on the ground during peak hours of drinking on Friday, leaving a large stain which persisted some days after the game. No friends apparently were around to help this student. Unfortunately, the cocktail of chaos, confusion, and alcohol which breeds these kinds of injuries is an all-too-prominent fixture of BC’s social life.

Ask any BC student who has spent a game evening or a weekend on campus and you will hear plenty of anecdotes about binge drinking parties and people vomiting in dormitory sinks; I can attest to those myself. If you’re dissatisfied with other peoples’ anecdotes, go anywhere near Walsh on a weekend night to collect some field data.

Or if a reader wants a real sight, they ought to take a walk to the parking lot of the Mods after a tailgating day. I have observed snow plow trucks heaping up the mountains of garbage and beer cans littered on the asphalt under the cold illumination of the streetlights. Take note, too, of the ground beside the sidewalks on Commonwealth Avenue, where tossed cans are a common sight even days after a football game.

However, as significant as the problem of BC’s internal drinking culture is, there’s more at stake than just quality of life on campus. There’s a relevant moral truth that even were drunkenness a “private” vice, it would still be an issue…because there is no such thing as a truly private vice. Moreover, dipsomania happens to be a rather public one, and far from going unnoticed, it damages BC’s reputation in the area.

Whenever I speak to local residents in Newton or Brighton, especially people who live or work near off-campus housing, one topic that always comes up (at least in frank conversation) is the rampant alcoholism they see in BC students. Sometimes it’s the first thing I hear when the institution comes up in conversation.

Local Bostonians notice BC students’ habits. They notice the noisy groups going to and fro at the bars down Beacon or Washington Street. The embarrassment that is BC’s drinking culture is not restricted to its own borders.

So what is BC drinking culture, broadly speaking? Where is it centered, what are its main features and effects on the student population in general?

The primary occasions for drinking on campus are sports games and events. Football, tailgating, and pregaming are the year-round staples. Marathon Monday is always the most infamous instance of public intoxication at BC, where one can count on hearing ambulances coming to transport the alcohol-poisoned.

The main locations can vary a bit year to year, especially for Freshman dorms, which, far from being exempt from public intoxication, tend to be main scenes, combining addictive substances with a lack of responsibility and human formation that becomes more acute with each passing year.

One can always count on Walsh Hall and the Mods as the most reliable centers of drunkenness and vice for the sophomore and senior class respectively. It is inherent in their culture and has been for many decades now.

Off-campus housing centered around Foster Street tends to be the go-to for juniors, and garners many of the complaints of local residents. For freshmen, the center shifts year by year, but tends to be focused in CLXF.

What kinds of effects does drinking culture have on the student population in general? In what way is it damaging?

The most significant aspect is social. It’s not at all uncommon to hear from students about the pressure to get involved in parties and groups that promote and practice drunkenness. This extends to clubs as well; the BC men’s and women’s diving teams were recently accused of compelling newcomers to binge drink (and consume their own vomit) as part of their membership. Whether or not that was true in this particular case, it remains a general trend among exclusive clubs.

It’s no secret that steering clear of drinking culture also has broader social ramifications even for students uninterested in alcohol. When prominent organizations and clubs ground their social practice on alcohol, students are often forced to choose between membership opportunities and their own principles.

The drinking culture also does general harm to students as they enter BC, especially as Freshmen. In the words of a former Keyes RA, they are “Seeking belonging…[and] trying to find it in places, in organizations that tend to center themselves around drinking.” The pressure is real: “It’s rare to have a friend group that doesn’t drink together at some point.”

It’s important to keep in mind that dipsomania, while highly prevalent, is not totally universal at BC. Some dorms and localities are better than others, and there is a broad range between teetotalers and alcoholics. Nonetheless, drinking culture is certainly the more loud, obnoxious, and visible element.

In the future, I will go more in-depth on various incidents as they occur during the school year to illustrate this general problem in greater detail.