“”Enjoy it while you are in college because once you graduate, it’s called alcoholism.””

This is the saying that a great majority of college students tend to live by. Parents fear sending their children off to college for this very reason. A student at the University of Michigan died after attempting to take 21 shots for his 21st birthday — a common ritual regardless of whether alcohol is banned on campus. According to collegedrinkingprevention.gov, it is averaged that nearly 1,700 students between the ages 18 and 24 die and 500,000 students are injured each year from alcohol related incidents. You have to wonder if these numbers would drop if students were staying on campus to get their alcohol fix rather than going off campus and driving drunk. Having a wet campus would keep many more students on or around campus boundaries and safer from the horrors of drunk driving and other alcohol-related tragedies. 

I lived in Coronado Residence Hall last year and at the infamous check-in a student, who claimed to be 21, tried bringing in a case of beer but quickly got it taken away. I couldn’t help but wonder why Arizona is so adamant about keeping alcohol off campus. My mom used to always say, “”I’d rather you break the rules under my supervision than get into trouble somewhere else along the way.”” Allowing alcohol in the dorms would almost be the same idea. It is a much safer situation for the person drinking to celebrate in their current living situation rather than celebrating at a location that is a significant distance away. A new “”wet”” dorm policy at Avila University allows students who are 21 to apply for the abilities of a wet dorm. The application process consists of taking an Alcohol 101 course and writing a paper on what they learned from the course. Not only does this process allow the university to monitor who is drinking in the dorms but it also brings in a significant amount of revenue by collecting fees from the mandatory class.

If a wet dorm can bring in so much money, then imagine the possibilities of a wet campus altogether. Arizona students, faculty, alumni and fans support our university’s football team in such an immense way it is obvious that everything being sold at the home games is a cash cow. If the vendors at the home games were to serve alcoholic beverages then there would be a huge increase in profit for the university. This advance in increasing the university’s profit could be extended further by adding a university-sponsored bar, which would be a great outlet for the University of Arizona’s most loyal fans to have a safe and familiar place to celebrate their school spirit on campus.

— Justine Dubs is a pre-communications sophomore. She can be reached at

letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.