This Saturday night, when you're considering whether or not to take that next shot, consider the following: when you end up passed out in Lawrence Memorial Hospital, you'll be taking up emergency resources from Medford residents who might have suffered an asthma attack or a stroke or a broken limb that same evening.
News Flash, Tufts: an irritating hangover is not the only negative consequence of excessive alcohol consumption.
The e-mail sent to the Tufts community last Friday by TCU Senate president Neil DiBiase was embarrassing to the entire undergraduate community. That the senate and class councils found it necessary to draft such a letter is hard to believe for the majority of students who are responsible and level-headed. Who among us thinks that it is acceptable to be "hostile, aggressive and disruptive" to the staff of an emergency room? These are standards of common decency here.
Although out-of-control partiers presumably make up only a minority of our student body, we all are invested in the embarrassing situation. The more that we talk about this problem, the more pressure rowdy revelers will feel to curtail their public vomiting and urination.
It is much easier to destroy a relationship than it is to build one. Relationships take years to cultivate, but just a handful of high-profile incidents to send crashing down. Remember that your actions have repercussions, not only on your own class, but also on the Tufts Class of 2012 who will join us on the Hill next year. The rapport between our university and the Medford/Somerville community is skating on thin ice right now, despite the apparently blas?© attitude of many students.
The next time you're about to run screaming and drunk down Conwell Ave. on a Friday night, think about the fact that this semester's community relations barbeque was postponed due in part to the exceedingly tenuous relations we have with our neighbors.
What might have been the most troublesome part of DiBiase's e-mail was the account of what happened at last week's Senior Pub Night. One could understand that freshmen do not know how to hold their alcohol or how to respond to the rampant drinking on campus, but by senior year, better behavior is expected. Not only should upperclassmen be setting a good example for younger students, but they should also take into consideration the future that awaits next year. In a few months, it will be colleagues that you seniors will be toasting with rather than classmates.
We do not want - and cannot afford - this sort of relationship with our community. When those who live around campus are constantly annoyed, a minor noise complaint could easily turn into a much bigger deal, with more serious repercussions all around.
These are your landlords. These are people who might employ you to babysit or to tutor their children. These are the people who will either be bothered by your occasional late-night partying, or who will choose to let it slide. More seriously, these are the people who may be on staff when you or someone you know ends up in the emergency room after a night of reckles boozing.
Calling Tufts University an incubator of "active citizens" sounds like a joke when we seem incapable of showing a modicum of respect for our closest neighbors.
