Our sincere concern about the safety of college students — federal statistics say that about 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from unintentional alcohol-related injuries — is matched this time, however, by our outrage at and contempt for the actions of thoughtless sorority members and their dates who participated in what one newspaper described as “drunken debauchery and destruction.” What they did — unfortunately all too common in today’s “Girls Gone Wild” culture — is not funny and was not just a party out of control. It was crude, offensive and criminal — the kind of “Animal House” behavior that’s long been associated with male students and fraternities on college campuses around the country.
What really gets under our skin is that nearby Lake Lyndsay Lodge is the site of many area high school proms each spring, and we find it intolerable that the picturesque site — where hundreds of local high-schoolers make lifelong memories — has been debased in such fashion. And we’re horrified that college students would have so little respect — “abject and profound,” said a museum spokesman — for the sacred artifacts inside the Freedom Center.
These students should have been jailed for what they did to these facilities, not hauled back to Oxford to sleep it off.
Of course, university officials have been humiliated and mortified by the incidents. Before editorial writers could take up their pens, Miami President David Hodge had already condemned the Greek sororities’ “disruptive, disrespectful and destructive” behavior, and said he is “appalled and embarrassed.”
We’re pleased that President Hodge didn’t mince words and has pledged “to address behavioral issues within the Greek community in Oxford” and to “hold them accountable for their actions.” We agree completely with his assessment that “such acts are intolerable” and “are contrary to the values of Miami University, and contradictory to what is expected of responsible members of society.”
Hodge said the university will be “implementing recommendations emphasizing appropriate behavior standards proposed by an external assessment panel in a review of the Greek system last fall,” including “expectations for bystander behavior and stricter accountability among Greek members.” Disclosure of that review indicates that Miami knows it has a problem with the Greek fraternities and sororities, and must not be timid about the actions it takes.
Earlier this month, this newspaper reported on the binge-drinking crisis at Miami, documenting several instances of drunken students found incoherent, unable to stand, or asleep in unlikely places, including one in the middle of a road. Other news outlets have reported widely on the nationwide increase in apparent sexual assaults — in which neither party claims to remember clearly what happened — associated with out-of-control campus and off-campus drinking.
But make no mistake — binge drinking on American college campuses is not a new phenomenon, but it has grown into an epidemic. About two of every five college students of all ages — more than 40 percent — have reported engaging in binge drinking at least once during the past two weeks, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
In our May 2 report, Leslie Haxby McNeill, Miami’s coordinator of substance abuse prevention and peer education, acknowledged the problem may be worse in Oxford. While 40 percent of incoming freshmen say they consumed alcohol during their senior year of high school, that number is 54 to 60 percent for incoming Miami freshmen. “Back in the ’90s, students drank more days of the week, but fewer drinks,” McNeill said. “It was more relaxed drinking. Now, students drink fewer days and they’re drinking more.” The challenge for the Miami community — students, staff, parents and dismayed alumni — is clear.
In the past, we’ve praised the university for its extensive efforts to combat underage and binge drinking on campus, and have mourned with staff and students after senseless alcohol-related deaths occurred in 2005 and 2007. Last week’s scandalous disclosures make it clear that much more work remains to be done before Miami can rid itself of the disgrace and negative reputation these fraternal organizations left behind in St. Clair Twp. and Cincinnati.