Elissa Collopy
eac001@marietta.edu
Last spring, the Marietta College Student Government Association executive board committed to changing MC’s alcohol policy on campus. This now-accomplished goal will be implemented beginning in the 2015-2016 school year.
“I hope that these changes benefit future students, and that they enjoy a little more freedom with drinking on campus once they turn 21,” said senior Brianna Scott, MCSGA vice president, who chaired the alcohol committee and led the initiative.
In working alongside MC Office of Student Life, the new policy will allow students 21 and older to possess two bottles of wine inside their residence hall room instead of one, lifts the ban on 30 packs of beer, and increases the permitted alcohol content of a single beverage to 15 percent rather than the previous 10 percent.
Juniors Kennedy Clyde and Casey McGuire worked on the policy with Scott alongside Assistant Dean of Students Amanda Mullen.
“My committee took these concerns and attempted to create a change that would benefit students while also recognizing the concerns of safety from the administration,” Scott said.
Scott said she was really interested in changing the alcohol policy because it would allow for students who were of legal drinking age to have more opportunities to drink in a safe environment on campus and not feel as if they were being overly monitored by MC. According to Scott, many students were complaining that the previous alcohol policy “limited their social opportunities on campus.”
Most students are happy the policy is now more lenient, and several students, as well as one alumna, commented on fewer people being written up for alcohol reasons in the upcoming year, to one mentioning the effect of this change to decrease binge drinking on campus.
Alex VanGundy, a recent alumna, spoke out about her surprise that the policy was becoming more lenient rather than stricter.
“It’s so interesting to hear that the alcohol policy is changing at Marietta,” she said. “My assumption was that if there were changes implemented to the policy they would be much stricter and harder for students of age to have alcohol in their rooms.”
However, she also commented on understanding the need for these regulations on campus.
“I understand that there needs to be regulations on what students can and cannot have in campus housing, but these restrictions being lifted are great to hear because I believe that they are very reasonable things,” VanGundy said.
Scott said the administration is receptive to hearing student proposals for change and encourages future students to ask those questions, discuss concerns, or propose changes that they feel would help the student body.
