College Park bar behavior outrageous

People who can’t go out and have a few drinks without behaving like gorillas on steroids should do the rest of us a favor and stay home. They could drink in their own houses, punch each other in the face and destroy their own property without bothering the normal people who are out trying to have a good time.

This past Friday night, the College Park bar scene was ridiculous. I watched two huge brawls at Cornerstone, one of which ended with a guy lying on the ground, bleeding. As he lay on the ground, some other random guy ran over to him. Was he worried? Concerned? Coming to help him stand back up? No, he was coming over to take a picture of the guy as he lay bleeding on the sidewalk.

We left the bar at this point, only to watch four guys walk past a silver Chevrolet and smash the side view mirror off, for no apparent reason, and continue walking home.

Being drunk is no excuse to ruin other people’s nights with your fighting or ruin other people’s property when the combination of alcohol and excess testosterone makes you feel like smashing something. If you’re not enough of a man to handle your alcohol, I suggest you don’t drink.

Erin Millford

Class of 2006

RA’s more than just party busters

Josh Wert’s Sep. 14 letter, “RA’s can help stop underage drinking,” questions how resident assistants handle drinking on the campus, specifically in dorm rooms. He suggests that if an RA knows residents are drinking in a dorm room, he or she should “leave it alone” if it isn’t going to be a problem. Wert states that dorms are the safest place to drink and RAs’ leniency will allow police to handle other issues around the campus. He finishes his letter by stating, “RAs are getting free room and board; I think it’s time the university starts making them earn it!” As an RA in a freshman dorm, I was obviously amused.

Last time I checked, Maryland law states that a person must be 21 to drink. Part of being an RA is enforcing policy; while I do not like to get residents in trouble, my job description requires that I enforce the drinking age in the dorms. Do I act like Nancy Drew and attempt to spy on my residents to see if they are drinking in their dorms? No, but if I smell alcohol, hear alcohol-related noises or see alcohol, it’s a guarantee that I’m knocking on a door and writing an incident report. Additionally, I have never called the police to handle an alcohol-related incident in the dorms. Wert complains that quieter, alcohol-related gatherings monopolize police time, but it is these gatherings RAs are able to handle alone.

RAs do much more than roam dorm hallways looking for parties to break up and bust. We serve as peer counselors to our residents when they have roommate issues, academic problems or general life problems. We organize programs to help them get to know each other. We are a full-time support system for our residents, and we most certainly earn our pay.

Jennifer Markey

Cambridge Hall Resident Assistant

Terp fans being throttled

Simply put, the banning of “Rock & Roll, Part II” is directly correlated with the troublesome seasons of our football and basketball teams.

I came to the university in the fall 2002 semester, the year after our ACC championship in football and our national championship on the basketball court. However, all the popularity brought restriction after restriction to the fans of the university’s sports programs. I didn’t care much back then; I was living it up as a Terp fan and enjoying the success of our teams. Looking back, though, it’s odd how the regulations against this infamous song match up with the struggle of our two teams that had the song played routinely at every game.

The fans took their first hit when the song could only be played by the band once per half. Over the next two years, there continued to be much talk about taking the song away for both sports, and after the obscene chants directed toward Duke and J.J. Redick made it into an ESPN segment, the university saw fit to act. As a result, “Rock & Roll, Part II” was banned from Maryland sports in fall 2004.

Since the ban, the football team has been to zero bowl games, and the basketball team has played in zero NCAA tournament games. Taking away this song is just one example of the overall trend of censoring Maryland fans – turning our relentless and dominant atmosphere into a mediocre program with manners. We need to do something to create a boost – it seems we are just spiraling down to the bottom. At least give Special K his microphone back!

Dan Previti

Class of 2006