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Thursday, August 15, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

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 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at 
the University of Michigan since 1890.

 ERIN WHITE
Editorial Page Editor

Zack Blumberg
Emma Chang
Emily Considine
Joel Danilewitz
Emily Huhman

Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Timothy Spurlin
Nicholas Tomaino
Erin White 
Ashley Zhang

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

CASSANDRA MANSUETTI
Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

A

ugust has always had a 
tangible, special air for me. It 
is undeniably the beginning of 
the end — the end of summer, of feeling 
the sun on your skin, of family vacations, 
of internships and jobs, of being able 
to take a day and just breathe without 
classes or deadlines or meetings or 
reading or anything else. But as the first 
Canvas notifications begin to appear in 
my inbox and Facebook notifications 
alert me of welcome week event 
invitations, it’s impossible to avoid the 
impending term.
I love summer, but strangley to 
some, I love school too. I’ve always 
been exhilarated by the promise of new 
knowledge, the crispness of new school 
supplies and the palpable optimism; 
the idea that this is the semester we will 
all truly dedicate ourselves to school. 
For about a week, nearly everyone is 
the perfect student — approaching new 
ideas with zeal and enthusiasm, and 
actually doing class readings. Though I 
know the magic of the new school year 
will be short-lived, I’ve always felt it.
Welcome week is the week before 
classes begin, when our University’s 
infamous Greek life is in full swing, 
when many students spend days 
partying and drinking. The excitement 
of returning to campus and seeing 
friends is clear, and the most alluring 
social aspects of our school are 
magnified, while the demands of 
academic life only lure in the future.
But there is an undeniable dark side 
to the start of school, too. The culture of 
partying and drinking at the University 
is certainly not unique; most colleges 
face the reality that, despite the legal 
drinking age, many college students 

drink. As of 2016, 57.2 percent of full-
time college students aged 18 to 22 
drank within the past month, and 38 
percent engaged in binge drinking, 
defined as four or more drinks on an 
occasion for women and five or more 
for men. For many students, “going 
out” entails drinking at least this much 
— often more. 
Alcohol 
consumption, 
and 
particularly 
binge 
drinking, 
is 
undeniably unhealthy. Both the short 
and long-term consequences are well 
known to most. But while drinking isn’t 
healthy, it’s common. Approximately 
56 percent of adults over 18 report they 
drank in the last month. So, alcohol 
consumption is not unique to our 
university, or colleges generally. And 
while binge drinking certainly carries 
a heavy, negative connotation, many 
individuals are capable of surpassing 
the number of drinks that constitute 
binge drinking without throwing 
up, blacking out or doing things they 
later regret. Many students engage in 
behaviors that young adults engage in — 
maybe drinking too much occasionally, 
but more or less conducting themselves 
responsibly while doing so.
However, this is definitely not 
the case for everyone. This poses a 
significant problem when we think 
about welcome week. Especially in a 
campus environment where a “work 
hard, play hard” culture permeates 
strongly, a week dedicated to, simply 
put, drinking and partying, heightens 
the risks we face while participating in 
these behaviors. 
When entire days are structured 
solely around alcohol and parties, 
there is an inherent pressure to keep 

drinking. Especially for freshmen 
who likely have less experience with 
these kinds of environments, welcome 
week poses significant danger, and it 
shows. As of 2016, drinking by college 
students aged 18 to 24 contributes to an 
estimated 1,519 deaths annually. It’s not 
uncommon to hear about students who 
had to make hospital trips due to severe 
intoxication — so severe that friends 
fear they might die without medical 
attention. 
Perhaps one of the most hot-
button issues regarding universities, 
and Greek life in particular, is the 
number of sexual assaults that occur 
on campuses. In 2016, the National 
Institute of Alcohol Abuse and 
Alcoholism estimated that there are 
an annual 97,000 sexual assaults by 
students who had been drinking. 
At the University of Michigan, 2018 
brought a 61 percent increase in the 
number of reported sexual assaults 
— attributed not to an increase in 
assaults, but an increase in reporting. 
Pamela Heatlie, Senior Director of the 
Office of Institutional Equity and Title 
IX Coordinator, said, “This is likely due 
to continuing efforts around training 
and awareness of the Policy, as well as 
increased societal awareness of sexual 
misconduct, such as through the 
#MeToo movement.”
I wish to see the best in people 
and places, and how I feel about the 
University of Michigan is no different. 
I love this university, and I wish I 
could say that this issue feels far 
removed, that it hasn’t happened in my 
community, and that it’s getting better. 
And while it has never happened to 
me, everyone knows someone who has 

been impacted by sexual assault. 
The number of reports at the 
University of Michigan rose from 
only 92 in 2017 to 148 in 2018, and 
most of them were not investigated. 
Of the tens of thousands of students 
at the University, this figure still falls 
alarmingly short when contrasted 
with the 23.1 percent of female and 
5.4 percent of male undergraduates 
who experience rape or sexual 
assault via physical force, violence or 
incapacitation. 
There are a hundred things we 
could blame for this. But to me, the 
most important thing we can do, as 
students, is to be aware and hold each 
other and the University accountable. 
This isn’t necessarily about cracking 
down Greek life or drinking or parties. 
College students will inevitably find 
ways to party and drink, regardless 
of the regulations put in place. We 
are not entirely responsible for our 
own campus culture, but we’re not 
powerless either. Creating a safer 
campus for everyone begins by facing 
today’s reality, and sexual assault 
does happen. All the time. U-M, like 
many universities, is often labeled as 
liberal. But on a micro-level, women 
are still objectified and devalued. Binge 
drinking is seen as the norm — to the 
point where sometimes, virtually no 
one is in an alert state of mind. 
When I think about the upcoming 
welcome week, I am excited about the 
fun and reunion that will occur. But 
with all of these factors manifesting 
themselves in one all-encompassing 
week, I can’t help but think about 
what can happen. Young freshmen 
girls approached by older boys who 

can drink more, who are in a familiar 
environment and who have the 
unfortunate inherent advantage of 
being male, surrounded by others 
often too drunk to realize what may 
happen. I can’t help but mourn for 
student survivors of sexual assault 
who may not view welcome week as 
a fun, new beginning, but as a difficult 
reminder.
Instead 
of 
offering 
more 
hypotheticals of what could happen, 
or telling everyone to categorically 
abstain from alcohol consumption, I 
would rather urge everyone to, at the 
very least, be aware. Make sure your 
friends are safe and accounted for, 
but also make sure that all the people 
around you are safe — even those you 
may not know. To members of Greek 
life, hold each other accountable for 
the impression that the community 
creates. Even by doing things as simple 
as calling out your fellow frat brother’s 
female-objectifying 
language, 
or 
telling your friend to maybe sit out 
of the next shot while pregaming, 
we work to create a better Greek life 
system, a better campus and a better 
society generally. 
This welcome week will, sadly, 
be my last. And while I enter with 
optimism for a new year, I also enter 
with trepidation, because I know what 
is at stake. And it is this apprehension 
and awareness that often prevents the 
trauma and even death we hear about 
from friends and in the news, feelings 
we may never truly understand until 
they impact us.

OLIVIA TURANO | COLUMN

Welcome week is all fun and games, until it isn’t

APPLY TO BE PART OF OPINION

Undergraduate students are 
encouraged to apply for an Opinion 
column for Fall term. Columns publsih 
bi-weekly, and writers will attend 
Editorial Board meetings as part of 
staff. Applications are due Tuesday, 
August 20, by 11:59 pm. Email Editorial 
Page Editors Joel Danilewitz (joeldan@
umich.edu) and Magdalena Mihaylova 
(mmihaylo@umich.edu) for application 
materials, or more information.

Olivia Turano can be reached at 

turanoo@umich.edu.

