Is La Salle University a party school

By Olivia Biagi
Collegian Editor
September 26, 2007

Although classes have only been in session for about a month now, some students are already engaging in excessive and serious partying, some of which resulted in physical altercations, others in involvement with the police.

“Students have been arrested this year [by the Philadelphia Police Department] and will face University disciplinary charges,” remarked the Dean of Students, Dr. Joseph Cicala.

“One La Salle student has already been suspended, and a dozen have been suspended on an interim basis.” According to the Students’ Guide to Rights and Responsibilities, the term refers to a temporary suspension, “pending the full consideration of a disciplinary case.”

“At the beginning of every academic year, at this University and any other I’ve ever been familiar with, people test limits, and every year it happens in a different way,” said Cicala. The University is unable to determine whether or not partying has increased in any way over the years. While there is quantifiable data on the matter, it’s not comparable because of changes in the number and locations of both off-campus students and houses, as well as other environmental factors that may affect the data of particular years, according to Cicala.

Still, the recent events bring up the issue of whether or not Lasallians are engaging in too much partying, a question which the Philadelphia Inquirer recently posed to all Philadelphia colleges and universities. According to a Sept. 18 article and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, college drinking nationally results in about 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries and 97,000 cases of sexual assault or rape. The article also referred to a survey conducted in 2006 by AlcoholEdu, which reported that by late October of that year, 50 percent of freshmen admitted to doing alcohol shots in the last two weeks, which was more than double the number of students that admitted to taking shots less than four months earlier.

However, Kate Ward-Guas, coordinator of the Alcohol and Other Drug Education Center at La Salle, has reported that a survey called Monitoring the Future, also administered by the NIAAA, shows a national decline in drinking from the graduating class of 1976 to the class of 2006.

“Today’s college students on entry drink less than their possible parents,” said Ward-Guas of the survey’s results. Yet, there is more need for concern now about college drinking and partying. Ward-Guas stated that “the consequences of excessive alcohol use are overwhelmingly greater.”

The AOD center has a pamphlet listing occupations that may be denied to those with a previous alcohol conviction, whether it’s a misdemeanor or a felony. For example, “If you’re [studying to be] a nurse, you can’t get your license. If you’re [studying to be] a funeral director, you can’t get your license,” said Brother Edward Conway, counselor educator for AOD. Without those licenses, it is illegal to practice those occupations in the United States. Conway also said that possession of fake identification is a felony because of post-9/11 Homeland Security measures. Other serious consequences include poor grades, suspension and/or expulsion and dropping out of school. According to the CORE survey administered to La Salle students every other year by AOD, 25 percent of students consume 75 percent of the alcohol, making those students at high risk of being subjected to the serious consequences of excessive drinking and partying. Ward-Guas also states that one trend shown by the survey is “males who live off-campus, but whose primary residence isn’t in Pennsylvania, drink in a statistically higher level than the rest of the student population.”

Cicala also adds that it is approximately “six to seven percent of the total number [of off-campus students]…maybe 10 houses that have warranted attention… no row-house is designed to hold 200 people,” and he noted that larger problems arise when alcohol is distributed to “every person who shows up at your doorstep. I can’t believe people don’t know that. They are willfully flouting the values of the University and the laws of the city and the commonwealth and we will not stand for it.”

While the numbers of participants of excessive partying may seem small, the situation is being taken very seriously by University staff members.

“All I will say is that I have been disappointed in the behavior that some of our community members have been engaged in over the past few weeks. I do not think that these individuals accurately portray what it is to be a Lasallian,” said Mark Badstubner, director, community standards and support.

“The kinds of things we’ve been dealing with in the off-campus environment are unacceptable,” said Cicala. “They disappoint me greatly and they anger me. The good news is, it isn’t everyone.”

Ward-Guas, Conway and Cicala do not think of La Salle as a party school. Conway said that La Salle’s drinking rate is comparable to other schools, while Cicala recognized the reputation La Salle has gained as a party school among some high school students.

Over the years, La Salle has taken many proactive measures for students’ safety, such as alcohol awareness programs, a brightly lit campus and additional Emergency Blue Lights and security booths. Yet, as Cicala pointed out, some students “still want to serve alcohol, urinate on lawns and bother neighbors. [It’s] not just what we should do; why should those people be tolerated by any of us as members of our community?” Cicala also hopes that he isn’t the only one angered by the recent behavior of some Lasallians. “What are we all going to do about this?” he asks of the student body.

“There are many, many more people in this community making positive contributions; it’s up to all of us to role model appropriate behavior and not enabling inappropriate behavior by ignoring it or some way contributing to it.”

biagio1@lasalle.edu