Daily Campus

Drink responsibly

These are all unfortunate cases of bad judgment, but it is probably inappropriate to label anyone as "Bosch's Drug Dealer". Probably going to take some heat for that one buddy.

Thank you for keeping us abreast of the situation.

One day SMU should learn the following: (1) Its students are predominantly rich, spoiled, status-seeking idiots who exercise horrible judgment all in an attempt to "have a good time." (2) Not much is being learned at SMU besides how to combine drugs in mass quantities, how to be "accepted" by greek-lifers, and how to spend all of daddy's money and ask for more. (3) The drug problem is not going away because these so-called "students" come to SMU because of its reputation for being a rich, mediocre, apathetic partyer's haven; the population is self-selected. (4) The school must face up to its drug problem -- that is, more than just alcohol -- and actually implement programs that can proactively curtail this raging epidemic. (5) All the above is truly what SMU truly is, regardless of the polished academic institution description an SMU board member would likely give. In the end, you are what you are; is this who SMU wants to be?

What is it about finals that makes students overdose on drugs or alcohol? Three deaths related to drugs and/or alcohol this year at SMU, and the university seems to place all the blame on the parties, frats, etc. However, they never address the issue that, for many students, finals can make or break their academic career. Many professors give finals that are 30-50% of a student's grade, and the pressure to succeed academically can be enough to push some over the edge. I've been at SMU since 2002, and drug use has only become more prevalent and accepted by students (perhaps overlooked by the university). They inform us of drug and alcohol problems via posters and insipid programs that no one pays attention to. What are they going to do about the real problems? We are overloaded with work, and the expectations from the school and family members to succeed can overwhelm a lot of people. Then again, I can see things from the school's perspective. What can they really do to prevent students from using drugs or abusing alcohol. Like every other university, SMU will always have to deal with kids who are experimenting and testing the boundaries of their freedom. In most of the recent overdose cases, the student is a freshman, and I suspect that several of these kids haven't been taught how to deal with the new freedom that comes in college. At least the university has been forthright in publicizing the causes of student deaths. When I first came to SMU, student deaths were usually the result of suicide or unfortunate accidents, but now it's drug-related deaths that are gaining media attention. SMU is not the only university that has these problems or deals with drug/ alcohol related deaths. If this were UT, the media would have never noticed a death like this. One must view tragedies like this from every perspective, and the media (not the Daily Campus, but othe rnews outlets) has been quick to condemn the school for its failure to prevent such tragedies. But what can the school do??? Babysit students??? Please! At some point, we must recognize that students- even 18 or 19 year olds- are personally responsible for their choices, and the school cannot do much to prevent kids from making these decisions. My heart goes out to Jordan's family because no parent wants to outlive his child, and his parents were never expecting their child to die under these circumstances. SMU says it is working to improve alcohol and drug education programs, but we must wait years to see the effects of such programs. Until then, the mass media needs to stop attacking SMU for the personal choices of its students. I am sick of the Dallas Morning News sensationalizing these tragedies, for SMU is like every other school in America. Kids are going to drink and do drugs, what can SMU do to preven that?

Please learn from these tragedies, I don't want to loose anyone else.

I don't mean to be rude but if we all thought like Elizabeth, we'd get nowhere. "Kids are going to drink and do drugs" Honestly? This mentality needs to go in order to incite change or the result will be yet another OD. "Babysit student???" How about arresting students, truly reprimanding them (instead of tossing out $100 fines and a mandatory 15 minute counseling session)... I'm pretty sure underage drinking and drug use is illegal. "We are overloaded with work" I thought this was a university? I thought we came here specifically to learn and work? ...everyone seems to frequent the frat houses more than Fondren. (My apologies to those who don't qualify this generalization)

I agree with "SMU Student." The school needs to face these problems instead of just Making UP Excuses as to why they happen... "30-50% of a students grade..." get over it.

Your parents aren't paying $40,000 a year for you to booze.

I can't imagine anyone needing fifteen drinks because of stress related to the connect-the-dots, elementary-school-level final exams that are given in most classes at SMU (not because the professors don't care, but because they know the results would be horrendous if they give anything harder).

Please keep the families of these individuals in mind. Poor decisions lead to tragic events. Inform the ones you love of the dangers of drugs. Don't let this happen to your family. Stay involved and always be there to help in any way possible.

While it may seem insensitive to try to address the issue at the heart of these tragedies, while there are friends and family mourning the loss of this student - it is certainly justifiable, if not appropriate to do so.

I'll suggest two points here. The first, I doubt is in dispute: many SMU students are making poor life choices. The second: we have no one to blame but ourselves.

As SMU Student above correctly observed, many students making poor choices select SMU. SMU does not go out of its way to create a party environment, in fact I believe SMU is aware of the problem, and trying diligently to improve the situation through awareness programs and promoting better choices. What good are these programs? Precious little. Elizabeth, above, characterizes these programs as "insipid." I would simply say there is little appeal to these programs. Why?

Picture a cable television music and lifestyle channel targeted at the youth of the nation that routinely advocates positive lifestyle choices such as temperance, avoiding dangerous and addictive substances, healthy eating, responsible sexual choices, and pursuing personal development through education and positive psychology. Would you guess this programming would be very popular? I think not.

Our culture does not want what is good for us - it wants what is sexy, what feels good for the moment, to be free of responsibility, care, and accountability for the consequences of our decisions. Drugs and alcohol provide the illusion that this lifestyle we seek is attainable and sustainable. But the truth is, it's not. And until we learn to value the things in life that reward us with long-term satisfaction, health, and success MORE than the short-term pleasures of irresponsible behaviors, we will not be free of the lifestyle we've chosen, and the tragedies it perpetuates.

Where did we get our values? When did we decide that these are the motivations that should drive our lives? Who is perpetuating the system that causes us to be "spoiled, status-seeking idiots who exercise horrible judgment all in an attempt to 'have a good time'." Are these our real values, at the core, or are they someone else's? And if so, whose?

I submit that, regardless of the origin of this ethos, our troubles are self-imposed. Whoever made the rules of what is cool and what is not - what it takes to be accepted, and what it means to have a good time - WE are the ones enforcing these rules on ourselves. And as such, we have NO ONE to blame if we continue to do so. Not SMU. Not our parents. Not the awareness programs that nobody pays attention to, or ever will. Not our professors, our society, or our country. We have only one person to blame, and to an extent, our friends, our greek brothers and sisters, and significant others who perpetuate crummy values by failing to stand up and take action in their own lives.

It's not about the pressure of being a college student, or final exams. If we avoid all forms of self-improvement until we become to feeble to accomplish simple academic pursuits, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Further, what sense is there is being so worried about your future - what might happen years from now - that you go out and hurt yourself this evening. I'm worried about my grades so I'll drink myself into a stupor. Have we turned off our brains completely?

So, rather than placing blame where it doesn't belong, and rather than insisting that SOMEONE should do something about this problem - perhaps it would be more productive if WE, ourselves - individually - do something. We are, after all, both the source of the problem, and the perpetuators of it. Maybe it's time to realize that we are rational individuals, rather than mindless members of a confused mass. If we're willing to lose our status as one of the hive, perhaps we will discover what we were seeking all along.

IN RESPONSE TO "SMU STUDENT." First of all, own up to your own opinion. If you are a student here, then you, yes you, are also a member of SMU's "self-selected" student population. So are you rich, or on a scholarship, or both?? Let me explain something, everyone suffers from problems, all of these problems differ from person to person. Thus, everyone designs and implements their own ways of handling these problems. Jacob was my pledge brother, and my best friend, and he makes the third one of my good friends to pass away in one way or another. The fact that he died because of a combination of drugs in his system that proved to be lethal has nothing to do with who he was as a person - one of the most caring, selfless, and happiest people ive ever been friends with. Now hes gone, and then Jordan passed away. He went out with some friends and had 15 drinks (as reported by DPD) which to some seems impossible, and to others seems an appetizer. The reason for Bolsch's death is still unknown, but because "her drug dealer" is going to be questioned her death is attributed to drugs, a rumor that has not been reported as true. So now we have this person..."Smu Student" who feels so high and mighty, with his/her life in such a great place that they can rag on the school where they attend...and do it with such misinformation that it makes me want to puke. Many are here on scholarships, and others work their asses off. Students at every school party, get over it. Just because you dont go out on friday or saturday, and instead sit in a room at the BIC wishing you were a happier person and taking notes on whatever textbook your reading at the time, does not mean you have any right whatsoever to judge other students, especially your fellow students. These deaths happenned, they are awful, however they happenned. Im moving on with my life with the support of my friends, family, and fraternity, others should move on with thier own. If they cant, then they should realize that they are surrounded by people who form a support system for them. This "raging epidemic" as you so ignorantly reffered to, is a problem at every school. Think of Madison, you think they dont party as hard or harder than smu kids in Wisconsin, well youre wrong. So please, keep your misinformed, and rediculous beliefs to yourself, and try not to act so stuck up (as you described fellow students) and judge all those whom you probably dont know and never will, because your are a self-centered, egotistical, whiney brat. If you have anything else you would like to say, ill be back in Dallas in August, so find me at the house, and we can talk about your attitude.

Dear "SMU student",
It seems you have numbered each of your concerns in your comment, and I'd like to address each one with as much class and respect as possible.

Comment 1: Its students are predominantly rich, spoiled, status-seeking idiots who exercise horrible judgment all in an attempt to "have a good time."

I do not think I am what people call rich, I do not believe I am spoiled, and as far as "status-seeking" goes I do not attempt to climb any social ladder, but do as most do and that is join the group of people that fit with them the most. For me that is a greek fraternity, and if that is "status seeking" then I guess I am guilty. But lets say I am the one exception to the rule you wrote (which i doubt is true). Lets say that everyone at SMU IS is fact rich and spoiled. I don't see the link between that and "idiots who excersice horrible judgement" fits. In fact, I know plenty of people who are not rich and spoiled that use just as bad judgement as SMU's "humbly challenged"

Comment 2:Not much is being learned at SMU besides how to combine drugs in mass quantities, how to be "accepted" by greek-lifers, and how to spend all of daddy's money and ask for more

As said by JT thrall above, any school in the country is a haven for drugs. Ask any of your friends that go to other schools. Its not just SMU. A lot of the reputation it has is because it is a small school that does (god forbid) have a good deal of money flowing through it. As far as your comment of wanting to be "accepted" by greek-lifers, I don't understand. I am in a fraternity, and do not feel like I am constantly needing acceptance. It seems like it is always non-greeks attacking greeks about how "stuck-up" fraternaties and sororities, but have YOU ever sat down and talked to someone in a fraternity? I have a lot of friends who aren't in my or any other fraternity and I don't judge them. Why do you judge us?

Comment 3: The drug problem is not going away because these so-called "students" come to SMU because of its reputation for being a rich, mediocre, apathetic partyer's haven; the population is self-selected.

Wow, for someone who posted themselves as "SMU student" you sure have a lot of self hatred towards this school. Whenever I come home, and I mention that I go to SMU, the response I get doesn't even come close to what you said. You know what I hear? "Wow, SMU? That's a great school." I don't know where your looking, but when I look around campus I see one of the top schools in the country for many fields, not a "rich mediocre, apathetic partyer's haven". I for one feel privaleged to be part of the caliber school that SMU is. I apologize for not getting accepted into a better one of your standards. If you really think SMU is a bad school, I'll invite you down to Nicholls State in southeast Louisiana. I think you will consider yourself just as lucky as I do to attend a school like SMU.

Comment 4: The school must face up to its drug problem -- that is, more than just alcohol -- and actually implement programs that can proactively curtail this raging epidemic.

I don't see what an administration can do about a problem that is so personal. I've seen what drugs can do to people, and what it takes to get out of the hole that they create. And what it takes is friends, family, and support, not some program where an unfeeling jerk can tell people why drugs are bad. You don't think everyone that takes drugs doesn't already know drugs are bad for you? Programs, in my opinion, are not going to stop the drugs on SMU or any other school. It needs to be the students job. I've seen friends go down a bad spiral, and it is not an easy place to be. But I'll tell you what wont help: some shallow program on what neurons fire in your brain when you snort cocaine.

Comment 5: All the above is truly what SMU truly is, regardless of the polished academic institution description an SMU board member would likely give. In the end, you are what you are; is this who SMU wants to be?

Well if that is the SMU you know, let me tell you the one I know. The past 2 years here has been teh best experience of my life. I've fallen in love with the campus, Dallas, and the people (both greek and non-greek). I have made the best friends I'll ever have, and lost one that is very dear to me. Your attitude towards what is a very serious and personal problem to people, such as the deaths of 3 students, one of whom (Jacob) was one of my dear friends, is insulting to their memory. Do you think that the fact that Jake died from drugs makes him a "rich, spoiled, status-seeking idiots who exercise horrible judgment all in an attempt to 'have a good time.' "? If you could talk to him now, would you tell him that to his face? or would you rather hide behind your computer and insult people that do not have the privalege to defend themselves anymore. I'll tell you something "SMU student": The Jake I knew was anything but rich, spoiled, and status-seeking. He was one of the kindest, funniest, genuine people you would meet. But you probably never did meet him, because you couldn't look past the fact that he was in a fraternity.

To sum up, it is irresponsible, demeaning, and downright hatefull to treat 3 tragedies as a consequence of your stereotypes. You know nothing about those people, or their friends, and therefore have no right to downtalk anyone at this school with your generalities. Next time you post something, please do so with more care and respect. I hope that you get to know your fellow students at your years here, and find out that SMU is full of anything but your your pre concieved notions. Thank you.

-Chris W

I'm a seminary student and old enough to be Jordan's mom, but I hope y'all don't mind if I weigh in here. Even though I graduated from a state school more than two decades ago, partying has always been a part of college life. So have unfortunate incidents duriing the week before finals. A woman in my dorm horsing around with her roommates fell out of a three-story window and broke her back. Someone attempted suicide one semester. None of these incidents ever ended up reported in the campus paper because the university had tight controls over the news. Imagine an authoratarian system, you j-majors.

I don't know if the partying is worse here than anywhere else, but I DO think that students who are caught violating the alcohol and drugs policy should get more than a slap on the wrist. In my experience, the Greeks always partyed more, but it doesn't do any good to complain about that, you non-Greeks, especially if you have a beer in one hand and a joint in the other. Learn to respect limits, and if for some reason you can't, get help. There's an AA meeting on Tuesday nights on campus.

My prayers are with those of you who were Jordan's friends and to his family.

I've read these postings and feel compelled to comment as an SMU Dad.

"Hello, SMU? We seem to have a problem..."

Irrespective about whatever you believe about root causes, this is NOW about Brand Management. The question for the Administration is: do you detect that you are in crisis? Whatever it is that you're doing, it clearly isn't working. Hello, anybody home? Time to be brutally honest. Take a look at Facebook and read these postings. Really.

For the statisticians amongst us, the question is: what do these purportedly aberrant outcomes tell us about the distribution of normally-acceptable behavior? They are clearly within the range of possible outcomes, not even rare events. The question is: is this a distribution that everyone is happy with?

Is there (as some in this post have argued) a bimodal distribution of behaviour at SMU (Frats on one extreme bell, everyone else on another)? The frat guys argue that this is all one big normal (Gaussian) distribution, where EVERYONE does this - all across the USA and (more to the point) that there is nothing wrong with it (I haven't read any one's apology). It is SO sad when it happens (heartfelt and meaningful expressions of grief and sadness), but no one seems to want to change their behavior.

To the guy who knows three people who killed themselves and STILL doesn't seem to get it - good luck in life. You're an embarrassment and don't even know it. How's THAT for judging?

For me, I've come to the conclusion that the distribution of acceptable behavior at SMU is a skewed distribution, with a small population shifting the mean - toward quite the toxic environment. There isn't anything at ALL normal about this.

And so - I'm calling on University for some strong action. In addition, I'm arguing to pull my son out of this University. While I believe that a person can get as good (or as bad) an education at ANY University, more than instruction takes place during these years. People cement their ethics and morality while at University. But the gauntlet that needs to be survived at SMU just isn't worth it in my view.

I believe that three things need to happen:

1) Liquor needs to be banned from sponsored parties - whether dorms, frats, clubs, whatever. Drinking to point of blackout (yes, I've read Facebook) and alcohol poisoning has NO place at University. THAT needs to stop. NOW.

2) The Fraternal Organizations need to self-police and actually ACT like they care about their brothers. DEEDS matter, not words; what kind of brother lets this happen? Friends don't let friends drive drunk, but doing fifteen shots is just an appetizer? SHAME on you!

3) SMU needs to consider a brutal examination of its policies. Time to 'stand down'. You're in crisis. How many other US Universities of this size have had three deaths in one school year? What can be learned from these seemingly isolated incidents? Time for root-cause analysis.

You owe it to Jake, Meghan and Jordan. Time for some action.

Why is it the girl that died from drugs has not gotten nearly the coverage that the boys who died of alcohol did? I still havent seen a death notification email on her from the school, last thing I got was her being missing notice, which I heard about on the news first! If drugs were a legal way to get high like alcohol you would not see this double standard.

I agree with everyone else who has said that these tragedies are a very personal matter that cannot be generalized by inaccurate slams to SMU. As for what SMU can do, I have thought about this a great deal and I am not sure that a school administration can do too much since these problems are prevalent across ALL college campuses. In fact, I recently saw a CNN special about the alcohol and drug problem on college campuses ALL across the country- not JUST at SMU. I even feel guilty to think about these issues right now because it someohow takes away from the issue at hand- the lost life of a young person-the loss of which is painful to all those who had close ties and relationships with the person. One thing I think of is that we can maybe try to be more aware of our friends' drugs and alcohol habits. Sometimes we may honestly not realize the gravity of the situation - its hard when alcohol and drugs are so prevalent- it can be really hard to dry the line of when such habits are excessive/dangerous. But sometimes we might notice that our friends might need our support to change their habits. We cannot be responsible for our friends nor blame ourselves for their choices. But I feel that the recent tragedies have made me think of some of my friends whose habits I worry about.

I have yet to understand how independent, non-greek students hold such a hatred for the "evil" fraternity system. Just because you didn't get into a reputable fraternity does not make you any more or less of a person. In the end, you are being more judgemental and ignorant than any of us could even dream of, by blanket-hating people just because they are in a fraternity. Targeting the greek system as a some ominous scape-goat will not solve any of the real problems that still prevail at virtually every college campus in America. To say SMU is worse than the majority of colleges in its use and abuse of drugs is pretty ignorant. Go to a big public school or even a smaller community college type school and you will quickly change your opinion.

I know that many times being young means being irresponsible too. However, after all the advertising on the dangers of alcohol and drug use, it's quite a big shame that there are still students dyeing from this.