Penn Receives Alcohol Education Grant

No, it's not to teach students which wines to pair with fish.

The Daily Pennsylvanian reports:  Penn’s”Division of Public Safety and the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Program Initiatives received a $25,000 grant to fund alcohol education related to off-campus parties. … As part of the program, officers are stationed on street corners and sidewalks nearby parties and hand out educational materials to students as they pass by.”

This will only happen on “high-risk” weekends, such as “New Student Orientation, Spring Fling and the weekend nearest to Saint Patrick’s Day.” Forgive us our cynicism, but that seems precisely the times when warnings about the deleterious nature of alcohol are least likely to be effective. We’ve been in and around the Penn campus on Saint Paddy’s weekend, and honestly, it sure seemed like everybody was highly motivated to drink. Waiting until kids are (in all likelihood) half-drunk, on their way someplace to get fully drunk, to hand out brochures warning of the dangers of this activity the students really, really want to do seems…implausible in its likely effectiveness.

More likely, those officers getting paid overtime under the grants will be able to save a few kids from themselves by arresting them before things get too far. Ostensibly, though, brochure-handling is going to be the chief job. We’ll see.