The recent alcohol-related death of a 19-year old University of Iowa student has raised concerns about the drinking habits of college students.

You will notice that I said “college students” and not “fraternity members.” That’s because the death of Matthew Garofalo had nothing to do with the fact that he was a pledge at Lambda Chi Alpha, and drank himself to death at a fraternity party. It could have happened just as easily in a residence hall room or an off-campus apartment.

But for some reason, the Daily felt justified in giving InterFraternity Council officers from Iowa State the opportunity to tell us all how strict and responsible they are about alcohol in a story in Wednesday’s Daily.

I will point out some of the highlights for those of you who didn’t read the story, but let me just say at the outset that the picture of responsibility that the IFC members try to paint in the story is 100 percent bullshit from start to finish. The consumption of alcohol at fraternity parties is not as strictly regulated as they would have you believe.

I would like to preface this by saying that this is not intended to be a slam on the greek system. The fact that people drink to excess is not a greek problem, it’s a problem of our society as a whole.

Also, I am not preaching sobriety. That would be hypocritical. After all, let he who has not projectile-vomited cast the first stone, or something like that.

In the story, IFC President Jamie Smith said the incident opened the eyes of greek students about the dangers of excessive drinking. I was glad to see that, but then he had to push it a little too far.

“We’ve always been really strict, though,” he said.

I’d like to present some evidence to the contrary that I’ve gleaned from my own personal experience.

Until last December, I was too young to drink legally. The one place where I knew I could always get beer was at fraternity parties. I’ve been to many fraternity parties in my time here. I have rarely had an invitation, and I’ve never been turned away at the door or told I couldn’t drink (those days may be over now).

Jim Kaucher, the IFC vice president for risk management, pointed out some of the alcohol-related rules fraternities are allegedly supposed to follow when throwing a party. He said students must be 18 to enter a party and 21 to drink, and that ID’s are checked at the door.

In the IFC’s defense, the part about checking ID’s is true. I’ll never forget the first fraternity party I went to. It was one of the rare occasions when I had an invitation, so I waited in line and presented the guy at the door with my invite and driver’s license, which showed very clearly that I was 18.

He handed my license back to me and cheerfully said, “OK, you’re legal,” and wrote a big “L” on my hand.

This could only mean one of two things.

1) The guy couldn’t successfully subtract the years involved, or:

2) As long as the house was giving the appearance of checking ID’s, it didn’t matter if they were being accurate.

I was marked with an “M” on many other occasions, but that never stopped the guys working the bar from handing me a beer if I gave them a ticket.

Kaucher also said that all fraternity-sponsored parties are BYOB, the infamous system where you bring beer and check it at the door in exchange for tickets that can be redeemed at the bar.

I have found this generally to be true. But just last weekend, I attended a party at a fraternity house where the beer came from a keg. The keg was in the back of a moving van which was parked on theÿfraternity’s lawn.

Now, it could be that the responsible fraternity guy who was in charge of checking ID’s was just in the bathroom for the hour that my friends and I were there. But no one bothered to check my ID, or whether or not I even paid for my cup.

I didn’t, of course. Another truth of fraternity parties that I have found to be almost universal is that it’s easy to get beer without paying for it. I’m fortunate enough to have some very sneaky friends who almost always manage to weasel beer out of someone (you know who you are).

And keep in mind that I’m a guy. If you happen to be female, even the most superficial attempt at alcohol regulation at a fraternity party simply doesn’t apply to you.

Kaucher said houses that violate IFC rules about alcohol are penalized. This may be true. But violations happen as much now as they did when I started here three years ago, so it’s apparently not working.

Kaucher’s final comment was the kicker.

“I don’t think that could happen here,” he said, referring to Garofalo’s death. “Our members are more educated than Iowa’s. We have a close-knit greek system.”

To Kaucher, and anyone else who thinks it couldn’t happen here, I say, “WAKE UP!” The kid drank too much and passed out. It happens here every weekend, in greek houses, residence hall rooms, and off-campus.

Assigning blame won’t help. Neither will enforcing or changing alcohol policies at the university or in greek houses. Garofalo died because of his own excesses, and because no one bothered to take care of him. That is what needs to be changed.

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Steven Martens is a junior in journalism mass communication from Cedar Rapids.