The Fourth Wall
page 3
Downtown bars, res-
taurants and bottle shops at
Happy Valley adjusted their
operating hours for the 2012
State Patty's Day. Many
closed entirely for this sixth
annual drinking holiday,
while others simply closed
early. Maybe this was the first
step to properly addressing
Penn State’s alcohol and drug
policies.
Although State Pat-
ty’s takes place at University
Park, Mont Alto students are
no strangers when it comes to
drinking. Mont Alto is classi-
fied as a dry campus, though
when one student was asked
if she thought the campus was
actually dry she simply
laughed and stated, “Define
dry”. She went on to say, “no
matter what, people will al-
ways find a way to drink, we
are in college; that’s what col-
lege is for right?”
On Monday, March
19, Penn State Mont Alto
hosted a Drug and Alcohol
Awareness seminar. The ses-
sion was run by Officer Lewis
Sweigart, who has worked as
a university police officer at
the Mont Alto campus for
three years. Sweigart started
out by asking, “What is the
most commonly used drug?”
to which everyone replied
correctly: alcohol. Based on
people’s responses, the top
two reasons why people con-
sume alcohol are “to relieve
stress” and “escape reality.”
Another common reason is
peer pressure. Research has
shown that people are more
wrong, to which he replied
“I’m 21 so it’s legal.”
Pa.C.S.A 6310.1 is
one of the more serious alco-
hol violations. It is considered
a misdemeanor and a first
offense will find you with a
their friends are doing it.
Sweigart stressed that if you
are under 21, you shouldn’t
drink. He goes on to say that
he knows it’s hard for college
students to say no, so if you
must drink “never take a cup
of beer from someone. In-
stead ask for the can and open
it yourself.”
From there, Sweigart
went on to talk about the dif-
ferent policies and penalties
of alcohol and drug consump-
tion in the state of Pennsylva-
nia. One such major policy is
Pa.C.S.A 6310.1, which deals
with the selling or furnishing
of alcohol to minors. A prime
example of this is when a per-
son charges minors to enter a
party where alcohol is being
served. A Mont Alto student
who lives in the nearby Apex
apartment complex was asked
if he has ever thrown a party
where he charged guests for
alcohol. “Yup,” he replied.
When he was asked
why he did this and if he
plans on doing it again he
said the reason he charged
people to enter his parties was
to “make back the money for
the beer” he bought. Finally
he was asked if he thought
what he was doing was
one year in jail. If you are
convicted even once, you
cannot become a nurse in the
state of Pennsylvania.
Many students agreed
that drinking is the norm for
any campus, not just Mont
Alto, regardless of whether or
not alcohol is banned, as it is
at MA. "Dry campus” is the
term used for the banning of
alcohol at colleges and uni-
versities, regardless of the
owner's age or intention to
consume it elsewhere. In a
2001 article in the Herald-
Mail entitled “Committee to
tackle drinking on Penn State
campus,” - the author talks
about the status of Mont Alto
being a dry campus. He states
that Mont Alto is a dry cam-
pus because “Mont Alto is a
dry town”. He later compares
Mont Alto’s drinking habits to
that of State Colleges. He
says "There is drinking here,
but it's probably not as bad as
it is on Penn State's main
campus.” He then adds, "You
can't walk down a street in
State College without passing
a bar. It just isn't as readily
available here in Mont Alto.
There aren't any bars or tav-
erns within walking dis-
tance."
When compared to
State College, Mont Alto’s
drinking rates may appear to
be low, but this is not the
case. The fact is that Mont
Alto students are still drink-
ing on a regular basis and
they don’t see anything
wrong with that.
In an anonymous poll
conducted by The Fourth
the Drug and Alcohol policy
in the past. Furthermore, 38%
admit to doing so on a regular
or semi-regular basis.
Research supports
that if students want alcohol it
is likely that they are going to
do what is takes to get it.
Many feel that instead of act-
ing like it’s not going on or
turning the other cheek, we
should as a community try to
inform students as best we
can about the dangers of alco-
hol.
A large majority of
the students also feel that the
policy itself is unjust. 85% of
students polled feel the policy
should be changed to allow
students of legal drinking age
to possess and consume alco-
hol on campus.
Newly elected Stu-
dent Government President
Jalon Alexander said in the
presidential debates that he
“is not all for a dry campus,”
and that we need “an appro-
priate Drug and Alcohol poli-
cy” that is “non-coercive” and
“isn’t overbearing”.
Another related poli-
cy that has much student sup-
port is that of PA’s “Amnesty
Policy,” in which students can
call Police Services for assis-
tance if they feared they or
someone else was in danger
of alcohol poisoning on cam-
pus without the fear of legal
trouble. 84% of students.
polled support this policy.
President-elect Alexander al-
so mentioned during the
course of the debates he sup-
ported this policy, saying, “I
think this would help individ-
uals that were in trouble and
were sick, and could possibly
save some lives.”
Students can better
inform themselves by visiting
the Mont Alto website and
clicking on the “Safety” tab
under the “About Us” section.
Students can also familiarize
themselves with University
Parks’,
wealth Campus’ Alcohol and
Drug policies by visiting their
websites.
or any Common-