Pros And Cons Of Underage Drinking

The True Cost to Underage Drinking Unsupervised, underage drinking is a growing epidemic within the United States. However, there is another growing epidemic that seems to be larger than underage drinking: unreported sexual assaults. The amount of people being sexually assaulted are growing every single year and the percentages given out about these assaults do not correlate to exactly how many people get assaulted. The amount of money State College and Penn State invests into the investigation of underage drinking is ridiculously high and could be used towards other needed problems such as sexual harassment and stalking that occur within the campus.
As college students, alcohol is just a common and abused drug throughout campus. Drinking plays a big role in college party scenes as well as tailgating. Most freshmen, sophomores and juniors who fall under the age of 21 will still drink because alcohol is present. In addition, this age group would feel pressured to drink in order to be “cool,” to have a good time or to impress someone. Because of reasons such as this, State College and Penn State invest so much money and
resources into catching minors who drink and give out under ages.
The question arises if the amount of under ages given out in a certain night really worth all the money and resources invested into it. From personal experience, on a Friday night, there would be a mass amount of police officers patrolled in front of East Halls scouring for freshmen that are drunk or seem drunk enough to give out under ages. However, at most times, the police officers would just sit in his or her car and just talk amongst each other or stay on his or her phone. It seems that during the “Red Zone,” which typically is the first six weeks of the semester, the police is more proactive and do something about the underage drinking compared to after the “Red Zone.” The money that the college and town invest into a mass amount of police officers not doing their job does not seem worth it. Instead, the town and college could be smarter and invest in more severe cases such as sexual harassment and stalking that occur on a daily basis. The board of Penn State estimates that less than half closer to two-fifths of the sexual assaults that happen are reported, and of those that are reported, less than half are actually solved through a closely examined investigation. If State College and Penn State, reduced the money on under age drinking and more towards sexual harassment, more cases would be solved and the students on campus would feel safer than ever before.
I believe that Penn State would like to keep a better reputation as a college and a community as a whole just like any other college. Penn State is known for one of the best college atmospheres and environment, however when it comes to public safety, it could use a lot more work. When it comes to colleges, reputation is crucial in bringing in new perspective students. Colleges make money off of the applications that students send to the school and having a positive, notable reputation will help this cause. By having a multitude of sexual assaults and stalking reports tarnish that “reputation” that Penn State needs heavily which pushes parents and students away from applying and coming to one of the better universities world wide. By having a better reputation, Penn State could attract a much more diverse group of students which could lead to putting Penn State as a more notable institution than it already is.
When it comes to weighing out whether underage drinking or sexual assaults are worse, sexual assaults are much worse.
Although underage drinking is illegal, sexual assault could lead to lower self-esteems, dissociations, eating and sleeping disorders, pregnancy and even suicide. Someone could refute that by catching underage drinkers there could be less sexual assaults. By cutting down on drinking, we could prevent some sexual assaults; however there are many more sexual assaults that are not caused from alcohol, but rather from other purposes such as revenge or other psychological reasons. In addition, when the Penn State alerts that all the students get from a crime especially about a stalking or sexual assault, it is never in East Halls; therefore it could be safely said that underage drinking is not an effect or a gateway to sexual
assaults.
I am not advocating that underage drinking and not abiding to the laws of the United States is okay, however, if colleges throughout the nation are constantly reporting cases of rape and only a small percentages are reported and solved, then there should be something done about it. Students come to college to educate themselves and find out eventually what their career paths are going to be and they should not worry about if he or she is going to get assaulted at any given time.