By Dylan Nice / Staff writer

While Pitt-Greensburg remains a dry campus, a new policy allows Pitt-Johnstown students to get drunk on campus — provided they are 21, on the guest list and have a tolerance lower than six beers.

The policy, enacted on Feb. 2, requires student organizations like fraternities and sororities to register parties with the university and provide a guest list. All parties must be chaperoned.

Students must bring their own beer — six beers is the maximum permitted — which is handed over to a sober student monitor at the door. The student monitor then gives the student a punch card with six slots. The six beers are distributed to the student one at a time until all six slots are punched.

Liquor is prohibited by the policy.

And so is freedom and common sense, say UPJ students.

“It’s a bunch of crap,” said UPJ student Mike Patrick, 21. “Punch cards, wrist bands, and student monitors — I don’t know how they are going to enforce it.”

Parties can only be scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights and students’ own drinks cannot be served back to them after 1 a.m.

Patrick claims students will just arrive at the monitored parties already drunk. This is prohibited, provided the monitor recognizes the entering guest as intoxicated.

The old policy prohibited alcohol at any student organization party, but academic and student affairs vice president Jerry Samples claims this wasn’t enforced at all.

“We’re trying to prevent students from having parties spontaneously and out of control,” Samples said. He went on to say that the new policy is nearly identical to that of the National Greek Organization’s alcohol policy.

UPJ campus resident Shawn Richardson, 20, thinks it is too harsh because it regulates the serving of salty foods and requires non-salty foods and nonalcoholic drinks to be provided by the organization hosting the party.

“I don’t think this place is full of drunks and debauchery,” Richardson said. “But some people like to drink a lot.” Many students, including Patrick and Richardson, think the policy will be broken and wonder why the campus just isn’t made dry.

“Kids are going to get sloshed, policy or no policy,” Patrick said.

Sample believes a no-alcohol policy is impossible to enforce and that the campus provides a safe place for 21-year-olds to experience alcohol. Students over 21 are still permitted to drink in the dorms, provided it is within the set limit and registered with the resident staff.

“I’d rather they do it here and figure out being drunk isn’t what they want to do,” Samples said.

A common criticism is that the policy is forcing students off campus and into the local bars. However, Greda Dunn, a bartender at nearby Shananagan’s Sports Pub, says she worked Saturday night and the bar wasn’t busy at all.

“Everyone I talked to went home this weekend,” Dunn said. “I think it was because of the new policy.”

According to Richardson, most students believe the policy is going to kill UPJ’s social atmosphere and drive down enrollment. He claims the consensus among students is that it is ultimately bad for the campus.

Sample says the health and welfare of the students was his primary concern in regard to the policy, and that too many students were going to the hospital with dangerous blood alcohol content levels near .3 percent.

“I had students telling me, ‘What’s the problem? Nobody has died yet,’” Samples said. “Well, no one is going to die.”