This is in response to “Drunken football-goers” which appeared in the Daily on Sept. 26.

Charles Mulford points out that public drunkenness is becoming a problem in the parking lot before the football games. His solution to the problem would be to ban alcohol from the parking lots and impose stiff penalties for offenders.

I would like to point out that, while the people causing trouble most certainly were drunk, they were a very, very small fraction of the actual number of people who were drinking, and also only a small fraction of the people who were drunk.

Banning alcohol from the parking lot would be a huge blow to a very large number of responsible tailgaters.

Public intoxication is already a punishable offense.

Why not implore the police to crack down on these offenders specifically, rather than everyone who is drinking?

Banning alcohol is a typical knee-jerk reaction to situations when there are problems and alcohol is involved, even if it is not clear that alcohol was what caused the problem in the first place.

Recently, the University of Rhode Island was rated as one of the top party schools in the nation. The administration panicked and banned alcohol from the university.

Now, no one goes to the football games anymore.

Now, people drive off campus to go to parties, then drink and drive back to campus. And, URI is still rated as one of the top party schools in the nation.

ISU doesn’t have a problem with alcohol; this country does.

The problem is that responsible people between the ages of 18 and 21 aren’t allowed to drink. These people are adults and want to drink, and because they don’t get the chance often, they drink too much when they do.

So ban alcohol from Veishea; ban alcohol from the parking lot.

The fact is it’s already banned for most students anyway.

What makes you think anything will be different?

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Michael Tammaro

Physics Department

University of Rhode Island

Wickford, Rhode Island